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TEN SERMONS ON THE 
SECOND COMING 

of 
Our Lord Jesus Christ 

Preached in the First Baptist Church, New York City 
from October 15 to December 17, 1916 

BY THE PASTOR 

\Ha, haldeman, d.d. 

Author of Christian Science in the Light of Holy Scripture, How to 

Study the Bible, The Second Coming of Christ Pre-Millennial 

and Imminent, The Signs of the Times, Christ, Christianity 

and the Bible, The Mission of the Church in the World, 

Millennial Dawnism, Two Men and Russellism, 

Could Our Lord have Sinned, Does it make 

any Difference, What is it to Believe on 

Jesus, Why are we to Believe The 

Bible is inspired, etc., etc. 




NEW YORK 
CHARLES C. COOK 

160 NASSAU STREET 



»A 



~BT88S 

■ Has 



Copyright, 1916, 19 17. By 
CHARLES C. COOK 



OEC 20 1917 



©Ci.A481U52 



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CONTENTS 

I — Our Lord Jesus Christ is Coming to this 

World a Second Time i 

II — The Second Coming of Christ in Rela- 
tion TO Doctrine, to Promise, and to 
Exhortation 63 

III — Is THE Coming of Christ Before or After 

THE Millennium? 139 

IV — The Secret and Imminent Coming of 

Christ 211 

V — ^The Judgment Seat of Christ . . . 283 

VI — That Blessed Hope 359 

VII — The Great Separation 435 

VIII — The Great Tribulation 521 

IX — The Falling Stone, or the Overthrow 

OF THE Last Kaiser 591 

X — The Thousand Years and After . . . 665 



I 

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS COMING TO THIS 
WORLD A SECOND TIME 




OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST 

IS COMING TO THIS WORLD 

A SECOND TIME 

By Rev. I. M. Haldeman, D.D. 

OU will find my text in Saint Paul's 
Epistle to the Hebrews, ninth chapter, 
twenty-eighth verse : 

"Unto them that look for Him shall He ap- 
pear the Second time." 

I desire to begin a series of sermons on thd 
SECOND Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Many long years before I became Pastor of 
this Church, it was my privilege to present the 
truth, and at a time when my voice was almosti 
the only one in the land that upheld it. In my 
extended pastorate here I have preached it in 
season and out of season; so that almost every 
sermon, exegesis and exposition has centered 
itself in it or proceeded forth from it. I de- 
sire to preach upon the theme again, not 
only in its complete and sequential order, but 
in relation to all dispcnsational and proph- 



6 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

etic truth. I am led to do so because al- 
though many are now bearing testimony to the 
return of our Lord, the ignorance concerning it 
is still widespread and abysmal. There are 
Christians who actually read their Bible and yet 
statement after statement which ought to gleam 
and scintillate with power to awaken interest 
passes across their vision or through the mind 
and leaves no trace. The average minister with 
an open Bible before him knows nothing about 
it, — ignores it, — is afraid to preach it, or when 
he does not pervert it, radically rejects it. 

The prejudice against the doctrine is amaz- 
ingly great. It is said to be non-essential (and 
here I desire to speak parenthetically and say to 
you that of all foolish, absurd and actually 
stupid things uttered by the tongue of Christians 
or written by pen, nothing is more excuseless 
than this attempted arraignment of "non-essen- 
tials." If the Bible be the revelation of God, as 
He is the great economist and never wastes or 
does anything that is unnecessary, it is evident 
He could not and would not introduce into His 
infallible Book anything that was not essential. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 7 

Whatever statement or doctrine therefore may- 
be in the Bible, however apparently inconse- 
quential and insignificant, is, nevertheless, es- 
sential. Since this doctrine of the Second Com- 
ing is very manifestly in, and a remarkable part 
of, the Bible it ought to be evident, to say the 
least, that the term "non-essential" cannot in any 
wise be applied to it.) 

It is held by many to be sporadic, the outcome 
of an unsettled state of theological definition in 
the early centuries ; that it has been handed down 
by ignorant, or half educated, or unequally bal- 
anced minds. The man therefore who in this hour 
of wheels, of machinery, of delicate mathematical 
constructions and the tidal sweep of materialism 
and sensuousness, dares to stand forth and preach 
the SECOND COMING of Christ is thought 
to be mentally uneven, the rider of a hobby, up in 
the air, and, at the very best — only a light and 
easy visionary. His sermons are supposed to 
have in them little that is practical, much that is 
sensational; and that their tendency is to disturb 
the Church, bring about schism and lead those 
Christians who accept the doctrine to go off at a 



8 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

tangent. The study of it, it is said, gives birth to 
foolish vagaries, to grotesque schemes of inter- 
pretation, encourages many to look upon them- 
selves as certified prophets, and gives play to 
hectic and irresponsible imagination, rather than 
the cultivation of a sane and sober application of 
the principles and rules of a daily and dutiful 
life. 

And yet — in the face of all this, it is a fact 
/ v^hoUy beyond dispute that of all the wondrous 
I things in this book written in letters of light, re- 
splendent with the glory of God and resonant 
with the divine music, not one of them, not the 
fiat creation of the world, the stupendous fall of 
man, the birth of Christ, His death and resurrec- 
tion, none of these immense facts occupies the 
space or receives such mention as the SECOND 
COMING. 

The First Advent is without question, basic, 
fundamental, so much so that apart from it — 
Christianity could not even find letters to spell its 
/ name — and yet — -foundational as it is — it is al- 
most insignificant when compared to the men- 
tion of the Second Advent. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 9 

Neither the tongue of angels, nor men can fit- 
tingly describe the measure, the marvel and the 
glory of the cross ; even the Holy Ghost with all 
His measureless powers finds Himself limited by 
the limitations of human vocabulary when He 
seeks to portray it. In all the speech of men 
there is no word so great as this word, "Atone- 
ment." It is the revelation of the genius and the 
wisdom of God, of His law and His love, of His 
justice and mercy, His hatred of sin and His love 
of the sinner. His rejection of merit and His gift 
of grace. It is a revelation of how He has found 
a way in which He can be just and yet a justifier 
of the ungodly: and yet — that word "Atone- 
ment" occurs but once in the New Testament, 
and there should not be translated atonement — 
but "reconciliation," the consequence of atone- 
ment; but the statement concerning the Second 
Coming of Christ occurs in the New Testa- 
ment — once in every twenty verses, u 

It begins with the beginning. \/ 

In the first chapter of Genesis God speaks and 
sun and moon and stars, constellations, systems 
of constellations, and measureless nebulae sweep 



V 



I 



10 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

forward in that infinite harmony which the si- 
lence of the skies proclaims. In the second chap- 
ter man is formed from the dust of the earth, his 
soul kindled with the flame of the divine breath. 
In the third chapter he sins, he falls and the 
whole race goes down in the wreck of his sin. 
Side by side with his sin and woe is the promise 
of redemption. The first woman stands forth in 
all the beauty of her fresh creation, but stands 
there with the shame of her sin, and as she listens 
to the voice of judgment which condemns her 
husband and herself to go forth as wanderers in 
the earth, learns, not only that the serpent shall 
bruise her seed, the foreseen and promised Re- 
deemer, but this very Redeemer shall bruise 
the serpent's head. Turn to the last chapter 
of Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans and you 
will find the serpent (that old serpent which 
is the Devil and Satan) is to be bruised be- 
neath the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ at His 
Second Coming: and if you will turn still fur- 
ther to the nineteenth chapter of the Revelation 
you will behold a scenic description of that event 
in the hour when the door in heaven opens and 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 1 

the Son of God, as the Word of God, as King 
of kings and Lord of lords is seen coming down 
the slant of heaven with the thundrous echo of 
His steeds of judgment, followed by the throng- 
ing armies of His righteousness clad saints. He v^ 
lays hold on Satan, binds him with a great chain, 
casts him into the bottomless pit and bruises him 
beneath His heel for a thousand years; and thus 
it is evident that side by side with this first an- 
nouncement of the First Advent in that far away 
Eden time is the first announcement of the SEC- 
OND. 

In the sixth chapter of Genesis you will see the 
flood gates of heaven opened, the fountains of. 
the great deep broken up and all but eight of 
a guilty world swept away, while over the rush 
and terror of the seething waters the voice of 
the Son of God is heard saying, ^^But as the days v 
of Noah, so shall also the Coming of the Son of 
man be;" and when next you stand upon some 
mountain height and see the line of shells de- 
posited there by invading waves which once 
drowned all the high hills and made the swing- 
ing globe a dark and watery waste, pick up that 



12 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

shell, hear in it still the sound of the receding 
deep and let it repeat to you, that as it was in the 
days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man 
comes : and let the flood proclaim to you the Son 
of God is Coming a SECOND time. 

If it be your privilege to journey to Palestine, 
j/ go yonder to that Dead Sea whose every wave 
rolls over the spot where the cities of the plain, 
Sodom and Gomorrah, went down in the wrath 
of Him whose breath like a fiery flame consumed 
them; and above the depths where the buried 
cities lie hear the voice of the Son of God saying, 
"as it was in the days of Lot (in Sodom) even 
thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man 
is revealed;" and let the Dead Sea as the burial 
place of a dead city and the judgment tomb of 
indescribable vice, tell out with its bituminous 
swirl and swish that the Son of God is coming a 
Second timjs and coming not only with grace but 
with vengeance in His heart. 

Not only is the Second Coming portrayed in 
the open statements and quivering accents of in- 
spired prophets, but in the pictured prophecies 
of illuminating types, living figures and colorful 
symbols. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 13 

Abraham under the command of God took his 
son to the top of the mount which he reached 
after a three days' journey, laid him upon the 
prepared altar, lifted his knife to slay that un- 
resisting son (doing so in the confidence God 
would raise him from the dead) when the voice 
of the Almighty bade him take a ram caught 
by its horns in the thicket and sacrifice it as a 
substitute in his stead. He raised him up from 
the altar in an act which was typical of res- 
urrection: the son then disappears from view; 
but Abraham calls his servant Eliezer and bids 
him go forth to find a wife for his son. He finds 
her at a well drawing water. He enters with her 
the house of her brother Laban, the fleshly man, 
takes out the pack of precious things sent from 
the father in the name of the son and shows them 
to her; and as she consents to be the bride, leads 
her forth to meet him, talking to her of him by 
the way; when, suddenly, unheralded the son 
appears, comes forth to meet her and take her 
to himself. 

Two thousand years after, on this very spot, 
the Son of God offered Himself as a sacrifice 



14 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

for sin, a substitute for the sinner, then on the 
third day rose from the dead; for two thousand 
years He has like Isaac disappeared from view; 
but the Holy Spirit like Eliezer has come forth 
from the Father in the name of the Son to seek 
for Him a bride and to call her by His name, — 
the Church, THE CHRIST. He is finding her 
at the Gospel well, the well of glad tidings and 
of living water. One by one as we believe we 
become members of that bride, because we be- 
come members of His spiritual body; the Spirit 
enters into our fleshly lives, as Eliezer into the 
house of Laban, and unfolds the Bible as the 
pack of precious things sent from the Father in 
the name of the Son. He is leading us along the 
way of time and circumstance, talking to us of 
the unseen and absent Bridegroom when, sud- 
denly, He will come into the air and take the 
Church to Himself, and thus this story of Eliezer 
seeking a bride, and the coming forth of Isaac 
to meet Rebekah, is the full and analogic, but 
prophetic picture of the Second Coming of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Head of the 
Spiritual Body, and His Bride, the Church. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 15 

Jacob wearied with his flight from home lies 
down at eventide there in the plain of Luz and 
takes for his pillow a cold and barren stone, 
while the quiet stars watch him from afar. As he 
sleeps he dreams ; and then a vision of the night is 
on him. He sees a ladder of gold leaning against 
the shining sky. At the top of it he beholds the 
Holy One of Israel, none other than the Christ 
of God who is to be. He sees Him coming with 
ten thousands of the heavenly host. He listens 
while the Lord declares to him that all the land 
on which he lies shall be his and his posterity's 
after him; and that of his seed shall come a na- 
tion — and this nation shall have temporal sover- 
eignty in the end of days ; he wakes to learn, and 
we learn with him, that the nation of Israel 
shall find its permanent and abiding place in the 
land of Palestine, be the head and no longer the 
tail of nations, and find its consummation in 
the hour when the Son of God shall come as 
the covenant seed of Abraham, the seed of Is- 
rael, the seed of Jacob and heir of David's 
throne; and this, when He comes a SECOND 
time, ..-.- 



1 6 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Joseph is the son of his father's old age, goes 
out to visit his brethren, is rejected by them, is 
cast into the pit of death, taken out alive and sent 
into the far country, into Egypt, is there exalted 
to co-rulership on the throne, takes a wife from 
among the Gentiles and at a determined hour, 
with her, goes forth in his chariot of glory that 
he may bring his father's house and his brethren 
after the flesh in to Goshen the promised land of 
Egypt. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of eternity, 
the Son of the infinite Father. He was sent to 
His brethren in the flesh, they rejected Him, 
cast Him into the pit and place of death. God 
took Him out alive. He has taken Him into that 
far country, into the highest heaven itself. He 
has exalted Him to the throne as a co-ruler with 
Himself, He is now, as also typified in the story 
of Isaac, getting a bride from among the Gen- 
tiles. At a predetermined moment He will come 
forth with His chariot with ten thousand times 
ten thousands of His angels that He may bring 
His father's house, His brethren after the flesh, 
the Jews, into the promised land of earth, into 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 17 

Palestine; and thus the story of Joseph is the 
typical story of the Lord, and finds its prophetic 
climax in His Coming a SECOND time. 

David goes up the slopes of Olivet, bare- 
headed, bent back, bare-footed, his face washed 
in tears, a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief, a rejected king. Later on, he comes back 
with a mighty host, the victor's shout, crosses 
Jordan, enters Jerusalem, and sits a king in 
lordly fashion on Zion's heights. Surely, we 
know our Lord was a man of sorrows and ac- 
quainted with grief. Behold Him on the slopes 
of Olivet, weeping over the city of His love as 
His gaze sweeps down the centuries of the com- 
ing woe, by that city is repudiated, goes forth a 
rejected King, goes forth to death and the grave. 
But, behold. He is to come back with the victor 
shout and song, cross Jordan from the east as 
He comes from Idumaea up, enter Jerusalem and 
enthrone Himself on Zion's heights as Lord and 
King; and this when He comes a SECOND 
time. 

And this Second Coming of Christ inspires 
David to draw his fingers across his golden harp 



i 



1 8 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Strings, evolve the loftiest notes and sing in his 
most daring and exalted symbols. He speaks of 
that hour when the heavens shall bow down to 
the earth; when the waves of the sea shall lift 
their tidal voices and break with triumphant tu- 
mult on all the shores ; when the hills shall melt 
and flow down as the sea ; when all the trees of 
the wood as transfigured witnesses shall clap 
their hands ; when all voices in earth, in hell and 
heaven shall cry out till the whole universe is 
full of the refrain, "He cometh. He cometh — He 
cometh to rule the earth in righteousness and 
truth : He is coming a second time." 

The prophets choose their choicest words and 
find their noblest phrase when they seek to por- 
tray the Second Coming of our Lord. 

Isaiah sees Zion exalted above all the hills and 
the Lord's house crowning all the lifted heigths. 
He hears the war sword's final clangor as into 
plough shares beaten, and beholds the spears as 
pruning hooks amid the gathered fruitage of the 
growing vines. The law goes forth from Zion 
and the Word of God prevails; and this they 
teach, when the Lord comes, not the first, but 
"the SECOND TIME.'* 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 19 

Micah announces when the Lord comes the 
second time war shall cease and men shall learn 
its ways no more, but each beneath his own vine 
and fig tree shall sit, none daring to molest nor 
make afraid. 

Joel declares the voice of the Lord shall be ^ 
heard from Jerusalem. He will overthrow the 
enemies of Israel and Zion shall be His dwelling 
place forever. 

Zechariah testifies the Lord is coming, coming ^ 
with all His saints: that His feet in that day 
shall stand upon the mount of Olives which is on 
the east before Jerusalem, it shall cleave in twain 
and roll forth as a platform for His feet, and the 
feet of His saints; and because this has never 
taken place, it is not at His First, but at His 
SECOND coming. 

When you open the last chapter of Malachi, y 
the Lord is seen, not at His First Advent, but at 
His Second, arising as a sun of righteousness 
with healing in His wings, ready to cast His 
benediction and His bounty on the earth before 
He smites it with a curse. 

Then we close the Old Testament with its mul- 



20 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRISt 

tiplicd and precise announcements of the Second 
Coming of our Lord, and lean across four cen- 
turies of prophetic silence. As we listen we hear 
the sound of angel song; we hear the Gloria in 
Excelsis; beneath the star lit sky a babe is born, 
, and we rejoice at the First Advent of the Christ; 
V but scarcely have we done listening to this rapt 
announcement of the First Advent when we hear 
the Christ Himself grown to manhood and to 
ministry proclaiming not His First Coming but 
His SECOND. 

He speaks of it in parable, in open discourse 
and story. 

He tells His disciples that a householder 
called his servants about him, gave to each one of 
them a work to do, bade the porter watch and 
said, "I am going into a far country, but I am 
coming back at an hour when ye think not. It 
may be at evening when the sun is low, it may be 
at midnight, in the deepest darkness and when 
the stars arise. It may be in the cock crowing 
when the night begins to advance, or it may be 
in the gray of morning when the dawn begins 
to turn through rose and purple to the gold of 
day." 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 21 

And the Lord said to them, "You are the house 
and you are the servants, you have each of you 
your work, and the Holy Ghost shall keep the 
door. I am going yonder into .the land of ^far 
distance,' into heaven above; but I am coming 
back, I am coming a second time and at an hour 
when ye think not. It may be in the evening as 
the age draws to its close. It may be in the mid- 
night when the spiritual darkness is deep. It 
may be at the cock crowing when the sound of 
trumpets begins to be heard. It may be in the 
blaze of the morning, in the splendor of that new 
day that shall dawn as the Day of God. What I 
say unto one I say unto all — Watch ! Watch ! be 
ready! for I am coming a SECOND time." 

He compares His return to that of a bride- ^ 
groom who comes at midnight to meet the wait- 
ing bride's maids and with them enter into the 
marriage chamber, to the marriage supper and 
the joy. 

He says He is coming as King of glory to sit ^^^ 
upon the throne of His glory, as the throne of the 
Lord, in Jerusalem, to enter into judgment of the 
nations, and to judge them according to the 



22 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

fashion in which they have treated His brother 
in the flesh, the Jew. 

Then in that last discourse upon Olivet when 
His disciples come and ask Him what shall 
be the sign of His coming, He tells them of mul- 
tiplied war, of famine and pestilence walking to- 
gether cheek by jowl, of shattering earthquake, 
of false apostles, of deceitful workers, of distress 
of nations, of men's hearts failing them for fear; 
and then declares He will come as the lightning 
shines from the east to the west and with all His 
holy angels. 
^ But on that night of nights, at the last supper, 
1/ when every heart was mute with sadness; when 
they were quivering at the very thought that He 
who had led them so long among the hills and 
vales of earth was going away. He bids them 
look up at the crystalline arch of the nightly 
stars, and speaks to them words that should be 
let with diamond pointed pen into the face of an 
eternal rock, such words as these: 

"Let not your hearts be troubled : ye believe 
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's 
house are many mansions: if it ivere not so, I 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 23 

would have told you. I go to prepare a place for 
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, 
I will come again: and receive you unto myself : 
that where I am, there ye may be also." 

And then, in that tragic hour, in that gaiish . 
morning light when He stood before His judges, 
mocked, spit upon, bound, a rope about His neck 
as when a lamb is to slaughter led ; standing on 
the threshold of His shameful death, He said to 
them that thereafter they should see Him sitting 
on the right hand of power and coming in the 
clouds of heaven. 

Then they crucified Him. They put Him to 
death. They laid Him in the grave and rolled 
the stone to the door of His tomb. His sun 
seemed to go down at mid-noon; but the third 
day He rose, forty days later He ascended from 
the midst of His disciples, and as they saw Him 
swallowed up and lost to gaze in the deeps of the 
upper infinite; even while they watched Him 
through their wonder and their tears, two men in 
white from the other country stood by their side 
and said unto them : 

"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up 



H THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up 
from you into heaven, shall so come in like man- 
ner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." 

After the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter 
^ v^ith John went up into the temple to pray. 
They saw a lame man there. Peter in the name 
of the Lord Jesus bade him rise up and walk. 
He did so leaping and running into the temple. 
The people followed him and a great crowd 
gathered about the Apostles, asking them how 
it was done. Peter answered he had not healed 
the man with his own power but by the name 
and, therefore, by the power of Jesus. Then 
he told them that He whom they had crucified 
and put to death was the Prince of life, the Au- 
^.-sthor of life — and if they should repent and turn 
unto the Lord, the Father would send Him 
back. Having said this he quoted all the 
prophets from Samuel and assured them these 
prophets with one accord foretold that this cruci- 
fied but now risen Lord would come a SEC- 
OND time. 

Yonder in Jerusalem a great council, the first 
council of all the Churches, was gathered to de- 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 25 

liberate and determine upon spiritual things. 
James the Apostle rose up and said it was nec- 
essary Christians should understand this age: 
in this age God was not seeking to convert the 
world, but was calling out from among the Gen- 
tiles a people for His name, a people to faith in 
the name of His Son; when this taking out was 
complete, when the Church number was filled 
up, the Lord would come back, would build up 
the nation of Israel; and in support of his testi- 
mony turned to the Old Testament, quoting from 
the prophet Amos, and thus from Amos pro- 
claimed that the Lord is coming a SECOND 
time. 

Paul writes to the Church at Rome that the 
whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain ^ 
together until now. If you will put your ear to 
the bosom of the earth, the mother of us all, you 
will hear the moaning, the heaving sigh, the plash 
of tears, the tread of tragedy, the footstep and 
the voice of suffering; everywhere anguish and 
sorrow, heartache, mystery, confusion and in- 
creasing lamentation ; but, lo, the whole creation 
is on the tiptoe of expectation, waiting for the 



26 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

manifestation of the sons of God, waiting for the 
Coming of the Son of God and His glory host; 
then shall creation break her bands of corruption, 
be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Son 
of God and flash on amid the rythmic splendors 
of the shining spheres. Thus shall this battle 
stained and sin scarred earth be delivered at the 
SECOND COMING of our Lord. 

He tells the Corinthian Church in the first 
chapter of the first epistle to see to it that they 
come behind in no gift, waiting for the Coming 
^ of the Lord. In the fifteenth chapter, in which 
^ every verse is like a string of pearls, he says the 
Lord is coming to waken the dust of those who 
sleep in His name. The trumpef^hall sound, the 
dead shall be raised and the living changed ; and 
this resurrection and transfiguration, it is af- 
firmed, will take place among those who are 
^^ Chris fs at His Coming/' 

He tells the Philippian Church that we who 

^ believe are citizens of a country which is in 

heaven ; from whence also we look for a Saviour, 

even our Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming to 

change these bodies of our limitation. (And lol 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 27 

we are limited, indeed). Here is a man with a ^ 
will like iron and a body too weak to sustain it; 
a mind full of leaping desires and plans and high 
suggestions, and a body that cabins, cribs and 
confines them, a body full of tempermental and 
physical hindrances; but Paul says. Our Lord 
Jesus Christ is coming from heaven a second 
time and by His power, the same power by 
which He rose from the dead and upholds the 
universe, will change these bodies of our daily 
limitations and fashion them like unto the body 
of His glory. 

He assures the Colossians when Christ died on ^ 
yonder cross we who believe, died with Him, 
and were put to death judicially in Him, as our 
representative and substitute. When He rose 
from the dead and ascended to heaven, we rose 
and ascended in Him representatively. He is 
there as our life, our spiritual and eternal life. 
Our life is therefore hid in Him, and as He is 
hid in God, we are doubly hidden and secured 
in the deity of the Father and the Son; but 
Christ is coming forth: He is coming forth a 
second time and in glory, and therefore says 



28 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Paul when He who is our life shall appear then 
shall ye also appear with Him in glory. 

Paul's first epistle to the Churches was written 
\/to the Christians at ThessaJonica. In his letter 
he commends them because they had turned to 
God from idols to serve the living and the true 
God and to wait for His Son from heaven. He 
finds them sorrowing over their dead and not cer- 
tain as to what relation they should sustain to 
the Coming of the Lord; and he says to them 
they are not to sorrow as others which have no 
hope ; but just so surely as these Christian dead 
have been put to sleep by Jesus, even as a mother 
puts her babe to sleep, so surely when He comes 
He will bring them with Him; and Paul says, 
I am saying this to you by a special revelation 
from the Son Himself, that when the Lord de- 
scends from heaven. He will do so with a shout, 
the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, 
and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then these 
who are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 
gether with them in clouds to meet the Lord in 
the air and so shall they ever be with the Lord. 

He says the Coming will be like a thief in the 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 29 

night. In the first epistle to the Thessalonians he 
makes it plain the Lord is coming for the 
Church ; in the second epistle he shows that after 
He has come for His Church He will come with 
her, and she shall be associated with Him in that 
hour of hours when He overthrows the man of 
sin, puts an end to the hierarchy of the Devil and 
brings in the reign of righteousness and peace. 

So full is the Apostle of this theme of the 
Second Coming that at the close of each chapter 
in both epistles he speaks of and describes it. 

To Timothy the young preacher, he writes and . 
says: "Timothy, I am an old man now. I am 
Paul the aged; but Timothy, I have fought a 
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord the 
righteous judge shall give me at that day; and 
not to me only, but unto all them also, that love 
His appearing." 

A crown, a crown of righteousness, not a re- 
buke for having dealt with that which was non- 
essential, but a crown of righteousness to all who 
love the Second Coming of the Lord. 



30 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

He writes to Titus and testifies the Second 
^ Coming is the blessed hope. "Looking for that 
blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our 
Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." 
\/ He writes to Hebrew Christians and talks 
to them about Yom Kip pur. Yom signifies 
"day," and Kippur comes from a Hebrew verb 
"to cover." Yom Kippur means the "day of 
covering." Yom Kippur was recently celebrated 
all over the world wherever there was a colony 
or company of Jews. Yom Kippur was that day 
in October when the Jews first, in the Wilder- 
ness, assembled about the Tabernacle while 
Aaron the high priest slew the bullocks and took 
their blood within the vail, sprinkling it upon 
the mercy seat. He did the same thing with the 
blood. of the sacrificial goat. The blood made 
atonement, reconciled the people ceremonially 
to God, covered over their sins typically in His 
sight; hence it was called the day of covering. 
Then the high priest took the live goat, confessed 
upon it the sins of the people and handed it over 
to a chosen man, a man selected for the occasion 
and called the fit man, the man of opportunity. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 3f 

He put a rope around its head and led it away 
into a part of the country uninhabited, out of 
sight. The people waited for him to return, ex- 
pected him to come back. Presently, they saw 
him coming, but without the scape goat, without 
the sin offering; and thus for another year the 
people were ceremonially secured from judg- 
ment, and guaranteed the care and fellowship of 
God. 

Paul tells the Hebrew Christians, and in tell- 
ing them tells us, that yonder on the cross our 
Lord Jesus Christ died as the great sin offering; 
that when with a loud voice He cried "It is fin- 
ished," He was announcing, not only that His 
covenant promise with the Father was kept, but 
that the type, the figure and symbol of Yom Kip- 
pur was fulfilled in Him; as it is written: 
"Once in the end of the age hath He appeared to 
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself/' 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is both victim and high 
priest, as the high priest He arose, ascended, and 
with His own blood went within the upper veil 
and there full atonement made. He ascended 
there also as the chosen maiij the fit man, the 



32 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

man of opportunity. From that hour to this has 
been Yom Kippur, Yom Kippur was but a 
shadow. The real Yom Kippur is to-day. To- 
day we are living in the age and dispensation of 
Yom Kippur or Atonement. But like the Chil- 
dren of Israel our gaze as believers is turned to- 
ward the far country, the country unseen, heaven 
itself; and we are waiting for our Lord Jesus 
Christ to come the Second time as the chosen 
man, the fit man, the man of opportunity. 
Wherefore says Paul to the Hebrews, ''Unto 
them that look for Him shall He appear the sec^ 
and time without sin (that is without the sin of- 
fering) unto salvation," unto the guaranteed and 
etern-al salvation of all who claim Him as sacri- 
fice, sin offering, scape goat and substitute. 

Do you understand this text now, and do you 
catch the voluminous accent of its meaning? 
"Unto them that look for Him shall He appear 
the second time without sin unto salvation." 
V Peter declares we should love, and rejoice in, 
the appearing of Christ. James testifies the 
"Coming of the Lord draweth nigh.,'* "The 
judge standeth at the door." 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 33 

The Apostle John says the world did not know 
our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and 
they do not know we are His sons now. They do 
not know what we are to be; but we know we 
shall be like Him. We shall see Him as He is — 
and the very sight of Him will transfigure us 
with His likeness and His glory. 

And this hope, the hope of the Second Com- 
ing, he says is a purifying hope, it is not a mere 
empty and inefficient vision, but a hope so but- 
tressed on reality that it will lead those who 
really hold it to separate themselves from all evil 
and sin and to walk becomingly in the name of 
Him for whom they wait. 

John is not satisfied with saying all this. He 
affirms there are those who do not hesitate to 
deny our Lord Jesus Christ is coming a second 
time in the flesh. He says all who deny this, 
all who for a moment refuse to believe He is 
coming a second time in the flesh, in bodily 
fashion, as the man who died, are antichrists, 
and deceivers. With inspired speech he says if 
any one should come to you and not bring the 
true doctrine of God and Christ, you are not to 



34 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

receive him into your house, nor bid him God- 
speed ; if you do, you are a partaker of his evil 
deeds and God will hold you as guilty as he. 

Then we take up the little epistle of Jude and 
find he quotes from the book of Enoch, Enoch 
the seventh man from Adam. We find this 
Enoch walked with God for three hundred years 
amid the riot and the revel of an ungodly world; 
so walked above its iniquity and shame in fellow- 
ship with truth and righteousness that God took 
him home without dying; and this Enoch, in 
his book written more than three thousand years 
before the first advent, testifies not about the first, 
but the SECOND saying: ^'Behold the Lord 
V Cometh with ten thousands of His Saints." 

This brings us to the last book of the Bible, the 
• book of the Revelation. The book was written 
under peculiar circumstances and specially and 
specificially inspired. 

When our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to 
heaven, God the Father gave Him a full revela- 
tion of His Second Coming. 

Our Lord gave that revelation to an angel and 
bade him give it to John, the John who had 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 35 

leaned upon His breast at supper, and the John 
who wrote the fourth Gospel, the Gospel of 
Grace and Glory. 

John was in the island of Patmos, a persecuted 
and Roman prisoner for his Master's sake. To 
him the Lord appeared in glory in the island 
prison and bade him write the Revelation in a 
book and send it to the Churches. 

The subject of the book, the whole book, is the 
SECOND COM/A^G of the Lord; for, this very 
word "Revelation," is "Apocalypse" and signi- 
fies "Unveiling." It is the unveiling and reveal- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ, the full and won- 
drous picture of His Second Coming; wherefore 
in the very first chapter and in that portion of it 
which is the introduction to the whole book, he 
says, "Behold He cometh with clouds; and 
every eye shall see Him." 

Every chapter is related to this Second Com- 
ing, weaving about it the movement among the 
nations, the gathering for the conflict, the loosen- 
ing of the spirits and the bonds of evil, sickness 
and disease and pestilence, falling out of the very 
air; unseen and demoniacal powers behind visi- 



36 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRlSf 

ble wickedness, hardening judgments which only 
tend to inflame the Satanism of the hour; in- 
creased wickedness and monstrosity responding to 
every judicial whip lash and probing; and then 
at the end of a description in which we hear the 
sound of trumpets, and the rush of the multitude, 
like the rushing of the seas ; after we have been 
given a picture of the climacteric moment when 
the Lord shall descend and crash into the dust 
with the iron flail of His Sceptre the organized 
iniquity that has opposed Him, we hear Him 
saying in a speech full of persistent and per- 
suasive pathos, "Surely, truly indeed, I am Com- 
ing. I am coming quickly. I am coming a 
SECOND time." 

And thus it is evident this doctrine of the Sec- 
ond Coming is inwrought with every fibre of the 
Bible and from end to end is an essential and 
vital part of it. So inwrought is it with all 
its texture and testimony that if I should take out 
of it every direct statement made concerning the 
Second Coming, all correlative propositions, doc- 
trines, promises and exhortations, together with 
the wide sweeping ultimate concerning it, there 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 37 

would be nothing left of the Bible but shreds and 
tatters. Who is he then who talks about the Sec- 
ond Coming of Christ being non-essential and 
unimportant? 

Unimportant! 

I hope by the grace of God later on to show it 
to be so important that it is bound up actually 
and indissolubly with every fundamental doc- 
trine, every practical exhortation, every sublime 
promise and every radiant hope; and that unless 
you know this doctrine you cannot read your 
Bible intelligently, you have no key to open its 
locks, slip back its bolts and fling wide the doors 
to the ivory galleries of the King. 

Who is he then who will say we can talk too 
much and preach too much about it? 

But not only does the doctrine of the Second 
Coming have to suffer from ignorance, indiffer- 
ence and prejudice, but from lawless perversion 
and false teaching. 

There are those who teach the Second Com- 
ing of the Lord means the coming of the Spirit; 
but the Lord's own statement about the coming 
of the Spirit ought to be all sufficient answer. 



> 



38 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

He said, "If I go not away the Comforter (the 
Holy Spirit) will not come unto you, but if I 
depart I will send Him unto you." "If I go 
the Spirit will come," and therefore the Com- 
ing of the Spirit does not mean the Coming 
of the Lord, but going of the Lord. Get it and 
hold it fast. The Coming of the Spirit is the 
Going of the Lord; and the presence of the 
Spirit means the bodily absence of the Lord; 
therefore the Coming of the Spirit is not the 
Coming of the Lord. 

It is said the Lord came at the siege of Jeru- 
salem ; and there are those who make the twenty- 
fourth chapter of Matthew and the tribulation 
therein described as the base of such teaching; 
for the sake of argument admitting the suffer- 
ing and anguish of the siege to have been the 
great tribulation (which it was not) , it is written, 
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days 
. . . shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in 
heaven . . . and they shall see the Son of Man 
coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and 
great glory." 

I suppose you have read history, and you know 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 39 

after Jerusalem had been taken and Titus had 
run his plough share over the ruins, the sign of 
the Son of Man did not appear in the heaven; 
neither did the Son of God Himself appear with 
His cohorts of Holy Angels and all the earth 
bending, some in adoration and others in fear be- 
fore Him. 

In the nature of the case, and overwhelmingly 
so, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem was 
not the Coming of Christ. 

There are those who teach our Lord Jesus 
Christ comes each time a Christian dies; and I 
have no doubt you have heard funeral sermons 
or addresses delivered from the text "In such an 
hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh" 
and the application of it made to the hour of 
death. But the Scriptures make it demonstrably 
clear and plain when a Christian dies the Lord 
does not come to the Christian, but the Chris- 
tian goes to the Lord; as it is written by the 
Apostle, "I have a desire to depart and be with 
Christ;" and again, "Absent from the body and 
present with the Lord." But yonder in the 
assembly of the Jewish Sanhedrin the whole 



40 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

truth is demonstrated and proved. Stephen is 
before them. He arraigns them for their unbe- 
lief and charges them with guilt in rejecting 
Jesus as their Messiah. By the power of the 
Holy Ghost he looks into the opened heavens 
and sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God 
and cries out and says, "I see the heavens opened 
and the Son of Man standing on the right hand 
of God." They rushed upon him with gnashing 
of teeth, cast him out and stoned him and he 
kneeling down cried with a loud voice, "Lord 
Jesus receive my Spirit." He did not say, "Jesus 
Come to me," but "Jesus Receive me." 

And this great action on the part of the Lord, 
and this relation of the believer to Him, takes 
place each time a Christian dies. The Christian 
at death goes to be with the Lord, and as each 
redeemed spirit departs and ascends to Him, He 
rises up to receive and welcome that spirit to its 
new abode. 

The death of the Christian then is not the 
Coming of Christ, but the going of the Chris- 
tian to Christ. 

There are those who teach our Lord's Coming 
takes place in providential dealings and events. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 41 

He comes each time a cyclone lays waste a city 
or a land ; each time a tidal wave lifts itself upon 
the shore, invading homes, destroying industries 
and swallowing up the lives both of evil and of 
good; each time a bridge breaks down, a ship 
sinks, a train runs off the track, the shiver of an 
earthquake or the pestilence that offers its holo- 
caust. Think of the grotesque conception of any 
school of theological interpretation which en- 
deavors to pass off a pestilence, a fever, or the 
shadow of death, as the Coming of Him who is 
life and health itself, the victor over death and 
the grave; but there is a threefold answer to all 
this fumbling and folly of excuseless and irre- 
sponsible interpretations. 

First of all it is written, ^'The Lord Himself 
shall descend from heaven." The Lord Him- 
self, not winds, nor clouds, nor storm and dark- 
ness, not fever nor pain nor disease nor imper- 
sonal things, but — The Lord Himself. 

Second. When the Lord comes in His final 
glory every eye shall see Him. 

Third. And this is the cumulative, climac- 
teric, and irresistible demonstration and proof, 



42 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

this scheme of providential events is not only not 
true, but scarcely worth the while to answer; 
for, if our Lord Jesus Christ came when the Holy 
Ghost came, at the siege and destruction of Jeru- 
salem, each time a Christian dies, at every mani- 
festation of providence, in all cataclysmic and 
catastrophic events and circumstances, then He 
has not come twice nor thrice nor ten, nor a hun- 
dred, nor a thousand times, since He went away, 
but millions of times ; and this would reduce the 
whole proposition of the Coming again to monu- 
mental nonsense, childish perversion and a farci- 
cal exegesis worthy only to the crowned with 
cap and bells; but the text from which I am 
preaching, thundrously and irresistibly answers 
all this folly; as it is written, ^'Unto them that 
look for Him shall He appear the Second time." 
Not three times or four times and all the rest of 
it, but a 6'E CO A^D time. 

From all this then which so far has been said, 
it ought to be evident, altogether self evident, 
that the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is a 
personal, definite and SECOND COMING. 

And because this Second Coming is so bound 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 43 

up and interwoven with every filament and fibre 
in the fabric of the Book, and has employed all 
the wealth of human speech, all figure, symbol 
and type, all the powers of the Eternal Spirit to 
set forth, portray and intimately illustrate; be- 
cause the Book opens with the announcement of 
it, and ends with the voice of the Lord in special 
accents of gentleness and tenderness, graciously 
and yet authoritatively assuring it, it is not only 
of supreme importance as so manifestly pro- 
claimed, but of immense and insistent necessity. 

// is necessary, in order that our Lord Jesus 
Christ may demonstrate the validity of His per- 
sonal and essential claims. 

He claimed to be Son of God and God the 
Son, the heir of the world and the disposer of the 
destinies of men. He made heaven and hell for 
a human soul depend upon the relation of that 
soul to Himself, and so claimed the right and 
prerogative as infinite God that were He not 
such. He was the most arrant and wicked de- 
ceiver who ever sought to blind and entrap the 
sons of men : as such the Jews denounced Him, 
and hailed Him, and sent Him to the cross of 
shame. 



44 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

But let Him come down the dome of yonder 
sky with His eyes as a flame of fire and His voice 
as the sound of many waters, and men shall call 
the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them 
and will own that He is God and Lord and 
Judge of human kind. 

It is necessary He should come to make good 
His claims as the King of Israel, 

He carried His credentials as such with Him. 
He could point to Joseph His adopted father, a 
prince of the house of David, as the channel of 
His legal claim to David's throne. He could 
point to His mother as a princess of the House 
of David, and through her by actual descent 
through Nathan from David himself, as lineal 
heir of David's throne, as David's Lord and Is- 
rael's King. He carried His credentials every 
day in the miracles He wrought. Miracles which 
had been foretold, stamped, sealed and made 
so clear no man could blunder nor mistake, to- 
gether with fulfillment of events and conditions 
so marked and true, that at every step they pro- 
claimed Him and proved Him to be the Sent of 
Qod; but in the face of the most marvellous 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 45 

verification ever made, either by God or man, the 
judicially blinded and guilty nation rejected 
Him, nailed Him to the cross, while over Him 
was written by a Roman Governor's divinely di- 
rected hand, ^^This is the King of the Jews,'* 

But let Him come with His schekinal clouds, 
His encircling host of angelic guards, with song 
of seraphim and might of cherubim, with the 
echoing of ten thousand times ten thousands of 
celestial harps, and all the music of a choral uni- 
verse; let Him stand on that Olivet from whose 
slope He ascended; let Him blaze forth in the 
meridian splendor that shall cause the sun to 
dwindle as a shadow beneath His feet, and the 
repentant Jew, always moved by signs and won- 
ders, will fall down, confess, and say unto Him, 
"Lo thou art our God, we have waited for Thee." 

It is necessary that He should come to justify 
the faith of the long, long, waiting ages. 

O, how men have believed and trusted and 
watched and hoped and died, as they called on 
His name. He must come to justify the rack, the 
stake, the torture. If the God of heaven do not 
send Him back, if He has looked on at all this 



46 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

sacrifice and agony and faith and unhesitating 
death for Christ's sake, has had no intention to, 
and never will, send Him, then God is, Himself, 
unspeakably guilty of allowing the sons of men 
to be ensnared, entrapped and wholly deceived 
in the false statement and misrepresentation of 
the Word He Himself has inspired. Nay! the 
blood of the martyrs cries out from every gibbet, 

and from every place of heroic devotion, "Come 

» 

Thou Son of God, Come once more." 

It is necessary He should come to give peace, 
not only to individual hearts, but to the world as 
a system of government among men. 

Up to this hour human government has been a 
huge and costly failure. From the beginning it 
has been a series of unbroken war, battle, blood, 
tyranny, oppression, anguish and woe. At the 
present moment some twenty of the nations of the 
earth are at each other's throats, trampling one 
another in the mud and red mire of blood. The 
banner of civilization woven through centuries 
of self gratulation has been torn into shreds and 
the rags and tatters of it flung out upon the gusty 
winds and driving storms of the loosened temp- 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 47 

est of man's wild beast and brutal passions. And 
there is no betterment promised for the future. 

Whatever nation comes forth victorious from 
the war, England, Germany, or Russia, there 
will be the impulse for greater conflict. If Eng- 
land win, she will have a sentimental score to 
settle with America; and both America and 
England will face each other with intensity of 
national determination on the issue of the world's 
commerce and the-world's industry. If Germany 
win, she too, will have a score to settle with this 
country, and heavy answers to give to what she 
will count as comfort to her foe; and that little 
yellow spot of self exalted heathenism in the 
East, growing and throwing out its octopus like 
tentacles over the Pacific's waters is reaching far 
beyond its island home. If Russia win, England 
and India and the East will become factors in 
complications whose peril no man can measure. 
Everywhere and at every turn the multiplication 
of complications and the frenzy and insanity of 
self-interest under the leadership and culminat- 
ing ambition of the Devil, will make the earth 
the arena for the wars and rumors of wars of 



48 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

which the Son of God foretold, and for the uni- 
versal impact that shall gather all nations to 
battle. 

On all the horizon no angel of peace is seen, 
only the black formless things of discord, of con- 
fusion and of ever resounding conflict. 

It is necessary, therefore, that He should 
/ come to lay His hand upon earth's fevered 
pulses, to evoke order out of chaos and bring in 
that government of righteousness and peace 
whose wide fulfillment shall be earth's most 
golden hour. 

He must come to make Salvation complete. 

Salvation is not complete, Paul in yonder 
heaven with Christ is only half saved. All the 
saints of God who are there and every Christian 
who dies and departs to be with Christ, are only 
half saved. 

How can any Christian be more than half 
saved so long as the body which was redeemed 
by blood and sealed by the indwelling of the 
Holy Spirit, lies mouldering in the grave? 

That other half is still under the DeviFs grip. 

The Devil has the power of death; on all 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 49 

mortal bodies he has a legal mortgage signed and 
sealed. The grave is his house, the bodies are 
his goods, and he is the "strong man armed," 
armed with that law which says, "Death has 
passed upon all men," and "It is appointed unto 
men once to die." 

The Devil holds the goods. 

The saints of God in heaven, though they be 
clothed with robes of white, wrought in the 
looms of God, are at best but manifested ghosts, 
disembodied souls, who wait the clothing which 
their bodies alone may give. 

They lack their full salvation. 

Hear what the Apostle says: 

"Now is our salvation nearer than when we 
believed." 

How can Paul say that when he above all 
other apostles has declared all who believe, 
and from the very moment when they believed, 
were then and are now securely and doubly 
saved because their life is hid with Christ in 
God? How can our salvation be nearer when 
the Son of God Himself has said, "He that be- 
lieveth on Me hath everlasting life," and that 
none can pluck them out of His Father's hand? 



50 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

The answer is, salvation is threefold, for us, 
in us, and upon us. It is ours in the death of 
Christ which delivers us from the penalty of 
sin; ours in the communicated life of Christ and 
indwelling of the Holy Spirit which are able 
to deliver us from the power of sin; and ours, 
when our bodies are redeemed from the clasp 
and corruption of death, and made immortal. 

Not till a Christian receives his body from the 
dust or is changed while living and transfigured; 
not till he is clothed upon by an immortal body, 
is salvation according to the eternal purpose and 
promise of God complete. 

And the resurrection of the body and the 
transfiguration of the saints can take place only 
when the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, He 
who is the resurrection and the life, shall come 
the SECOND time. 

It is necessary that He shall come. 

It is necessary that He shall speak, and bid the 
graves, on land and sea, give up their purchased 
dead. 

Thus the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ a 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 5 I 

second time is not only a supreme necessity, but 
the hope of all hopes. 

It is the hope of the world. 

The hope of all the nations of the earth; the 
Gentile nations, the white, the black, the red, the 
brown and yellow, peoples of all kindreds and 
tongues. It is their only hope for that hour when 
war shall cease, and be learned no more; when 
swords shall be beaten into plough shares and 
spears into pruning hooks. 

It is the hope of the Jew, 

Not till He come will the Jew find his abid- 
ing place in Palestine. Not till He come will 
the solemn oath and covenant and promise of 
God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, be fulfilled. 

And not till the Jew is in his place in Palestine 
can the world be at peace; not till the Jew is at 
home and one with God will the Gentile be 
ruled by God. 

The Coming of the Lord is the hope of the 
Church, 

Not till the Lord comes, girds the Church 
with His glory, fills her with His fullness, makes 
her like Himself, can she occupy the throne of 



52 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

power and associated rulership with Himself, 
and bring the world into the fellowship of God 
and truth. 

Yea and Amen! the Coming of the Son of 
God a SECOND time is the ^'Blessed Hope" of 
the Church, the bloom, the beauty, and the fru- 
ition of all hopes. 

Oh! if He do not come, it is the withering 
and the blight and the overthrow. 

All Scripture goes down pell mell into the 
abyss of untruth and unreality, or, is whirled 
away like fallen leaves of a dying tree and scat- 
tered on the windy blast. And the cross of 
Christ looms against the fire smitten and lurid 
horizon, a crimson failure, an instrument of 
cruel agony whereon a man failed and went 
down to the yawning grave that waited for Him. 

The failure of a Man! 

Nay ! the failure, the bankruptcy of the world ; 
a grave into which all hope and faith fall dead 
and lie hopeless as a rotting corpse. 

But the Word of God cannot fail. It is settled 
in the heavens forever more. Each utterance is 
filled with the breath of God and the speech and 



THE SECOND CO AUNG OF CHRIST 1 3 

promise are of His very tongue. 

He, the living God has said it — and it is true 
— Christ the Lord, His Son, is coming a Second 
Time. 

He is coming as a man. 

He is coming with the marks of the cross upon 
Him. 

When I was a boy, there was a man in my town 
who used to move me with admiration, with 
childish wonder and, almost with adoration. He 
had been a soldier in the Mexican War. He had 
been wounded at Palo Alto. He bore the scars 
of that far away conflict; when I looked at those 
wounds they spoke to me of a heroism, a living 
loyalty, a life's outpaid tribute to the flag, that 
stirred my youthful pulses. But great and mov- 
ing as were the wounds to me then, they were as 
nothing to what filled my vision in later days. 
It was in the hour of the great war between the 
North and the South, when the problem of the 
life or death of our nation was being solved on 
the battlefield. I lived through that struggle and 
in some small degree was a part of it. One day 
when the sound of cannon came on the wind I 



54 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

was halted with others on the side of the road 
that a convoy of the wounded might pass. They 
were loaded into great carts and wagons im- 
pressed from neighboring farms. And these 
wounded! they were young men, the flower and 
freshness of the land; and when I saw the band- 
aged heads and arms still reddened with their 
blood my heart melted within me, the tears 
leaped to my eyes. I saw in these men the radi- 
ance of that self sacrifice, that high and lofty con- 
cept which counts a flag and all it banners forth 
to be worth more than any single life; and these 
wounds and blood stains were to me as the stig- 
mata of unfaltering faith and abiding glory, the 
decorations and brevet of honor, of high attain- 
ment and of splendor, nor rank, nor pomp, nor 
wealth, nor crown of prince could give. 

But what were these stigmata, these seals of 
honor and devotion on the part of those who had 
breasted death that a nation might be saved, what 
were these compared to the stigmata of Him who 
died for you and me good friend, that we might 
live and be with Him in after days the sons of 
God forever? 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST S5 

He is coming back with the marks of the nails 
and the spear wound He received for you and 
me. 

And I shall see Him, see Him by the right of 
the purchase price paid in the blood of those 
very wounds. I shall take His hand ; how can I 
endure the wonder, the glory, and the anguish 
even of the joy and reality of it? I shall put my 
fingers into the marks of the nails in His right 
hand. I shall do it as Thomas did, and yet not 
as Thomas did. I shall not do it to prove Him, 
to verify Him, but to thank Him; and I shall 
say, "It was for me." I shall put my finger into 
the wound of His left hand, and I shall say, "It 
was for me." I shall put my hand into His side 
where the spear point was sheathed in His 
breast, and where water and blood came forth 
from His broken heart, and I shall say, "It was 
for me;" and I shall fall down and kiss the nail 
marks in His feet and every full running tear of 
joy and praise shall say, "These were for me." 

Yes, He is coming back with the stigmata of 
the cross. 

He is coming back — not a phantom. 



56 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

He is coming back a man, the man whom 
death could not kill; the man the grave could 
not keep; the man whom centuries could not 
wither and whom custom cannot stale; the man 
who is the Prince and the Giver of Life to men. 

He is coming back the Same Jesus. 

In spite of all His glory and splendor and in- 
finite crowning, He is coming back the same 
Jesus who sat by the well side in Samaria, — 
taught by the blue shores of Galilee, climbed 
the hills of Judea, and turned to music the dis- 
cord in human hearts by the words He spake 
such as man never spake before, the words of ten- 
der compassion, infinite love and measureless 
grace. 

He is coming as Bridegroom of the Church, 
as King of Israel, as David's Son, as King of 
kings, as the Restorer of the Earth, as its Recre- 
ator, as its Prince, its manifested and Eternal 
God. He will come first for the Church that she 
may share with Him the rapt beginning of His 
triumphant joys when He shall take to Himself 
His great power to reign and rule. Then with 
her He will come forth to begin the long and 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 57 

wondrous unfolding deeds that shall lift the 
earth once more into the orbit from whence it 
fell, into the full music of the spheres, to become 
no longer the footstool, but the throne of God 
and the center on which shall fall the gaze of a 
fascinated-and adoring universe. 

He is coming in a threefold glory. 

He is coming in the glory of the Father. 

He is coming as His Son and, therefore, not 
only as the Son of God, but God the Son ; as the 
Word of that Father by whom He spake cre- 
ation forth and by whom He uttered His mind 
and will. 

He is coming in the glory of the angels. 

The angels are the spirit men to whom winds 
and storm and forces of nature are the easy in- 
struments of their constant service. He will 
come as their master and their Lord, at whose 
feet they shall pour the tributes of their power 
and own Him Lord and King. 

He is coming in His own glory. 

The glory of the Son who was born of a 
woman. 



58 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

The glory of Him who was the Babe of Beth- 
lehem. 

The man of sorrows. 

The atoning sacrifice. 

The risen man, the immortal man, the infinite 
and eternal man. He who is both God and man 
forever. 

And all the signs of the times indicate His 
coming is at hand. 

The signs in the Protestant Church. Its world- 
liness, its covetousness, its love of pleasure, more 
than the love of God. Its unwillingness to en- 
dure sound doctrine, its itching ears, heaping to 
itself teachers and ready to be turned by them 
from the truth of God to the fables of men. 

The signs in the Romish Church, the already 
reaching forward to that hour when once more 
as the ''Scarlet" woman she will for a season be 
feted and carried by the nations of the Roman 
Earth. 

Signs in the nations themselves, the rush of 
multitudes, the roar of battle, the shouting of 
the captains, the conclave and deception of the 
kings, the getting ready for Armageddon. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 59 

Signs in the social world. The outbreaking 
of the people, the throwing down of old customs, 
the trampling under of old covenants, no master 
below, no master above. 

Signs everywhere that the old order is chang- 
ing, the new order coming; that new order 
which is disorder, disaster and unrest. 

The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 

Is the church ready to welcome Him? 

Do Christians want Him to come? 

Are you as a Christian ready for Him? Are 
your accounts all correct? Have you drawn 
your contracts and drawn them with truth, the 
truth that has in it no reservation? Have you 
lived the whole truth or only a half truth? Do 
you know that a half truth is worse than a whole 
lie. Do you know that a half truth is the para- 
mour of a whole lie? 

Make no mistake Christian man, Christian 
woman, you must answer for your stewardship. 

And if He should come for you to-day, how 
would you answer Him? If He should ask, 
^What have you done for Me to-day?" would 
you answer Him with joyful gladness and say, 



6o THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

"I have done what my hand found to do, and 
done it with all my might for Thee." 

What He said to His disciples of old, He is 
saying now and saying it to each of you: 

'Watch and be ready." 

And to you who are not saved! Let me warn 
you not to be living in a fooPs paradise. This 
world in which you are living is no holiday 
world, and it is no holiday answer you will be 
called to give for living here; no easy account 
to render for all the benefits He has bestowed 
upon you, and the grace in which He has dealt 
with you. 

You must meet and answer to the living God. 
You must meet Him in the person of the cross 
rejected Son of God. He is coming back, not 
only to recompense those who own His cross as 
an altar of sacrifice whereon He died for men, 
He is coming back to avenge that cross, and 
charge it as a crime against all who do not own 
and confess His name. 
1 You must meet Him either as an Avenger or 
a Redeemer, as Saviour or as Judge. 

Let me beseech you to hear the sounds of 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 6 1 

warning that are coming down the gale, in the 
tumult and the storm, and the gathering black- 
ness as it lowers on the rim of a startled and 
astonished world. 

Turn to God^s Christ and now in this hour of 
His waiting and grace, claim redemption and 
the saving shelter of His blood — before too late. 



II 

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST IN RELA- 

TION TO DOCTRINE, TO PROMISE. 

AND TO EXHORTATION 



The Second Coming of Christ 

In Relation to Doctrine, to Promise 
and to Exhortation 



I DESIRE to preach to you the second 
sermon in the series on, "The Second 
Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

My theme a week ago was, "The Second Com- 
ing of Christ, the one event more often spoken of 
than any other in the Bible." 

I affirmed, I demonstrated and I proved that 
in its narration, delineation and illustration, it 
was inwrought with the entire fabric, the con- 
struction and essential constitution of the whole 
Bible from Genesis to Revelation. 

My theme tonight is, "The Second Coming of 
Christ, the one event, the one doctrine bound up 
with, and fulfilling, every fundamental doctrine, 
every sublime promise, every radiant hope, giv- 
ing inspiration to every practical exhortation, 
and furnishing the basis of apostolic appeal to 
the highest type of Christian living." 



66 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

My text may be found in Saint Paul's Second 
Epistle to the Thessalonians, second chapter and 
first verse : 

''Now, we beseech you, brethren, by the Com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

There are those who preach and those who 
teach and multitudes of Christians and others 
who really believe that the doctrine of the Sec- 
ond Coming affords no warrant for appeal, either 
to the Church or the world ; that it is a question- 
able doctrine, wholly unimportant, and without 
practical value; that its tendency is to unsettle 
those who preach it and all who believe it, lead- 
ing them to speculation, to exalted imagination, 
and taking them away from the serious and sober 
side of responsible daily, Christian duty. 

I am here tonight to affirm, to demonstrate 
and to prove that, so far from this excuseless con- 
cept and almost brutal misinterpretation being 
true, the truth is, the Second Coming of Christ 
is not only the one event more often spoken of 
than any other in the Bible, it is so woven into, 
is so absolutely a climacteric necessity to Chris- 
tian doctrine, exhortation and promise, that if 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 



67 



you should take it out of the Bible, as some 
preachers have taken it out of their theology, 
Christianity as a system of divine revelation, and 
the Book as a record of it, v^ould fall to the 
ground, be broken into fragments and swept 
away as the withered leaves are whirled by the 
autumn gale. 

/ affirm the Second Coming is bound up with 
the resurrection of the dead in Christ. 

^The dead in Christ r 

What a far-flung phrase is that. 

It bids us go back to the hour in time's begin- 
ning when the faith of men and women looked 
forward through the intervening ages to the 
Cross, the resurrection and the shining glory, 
saw the promises afar off, embraced them and 
died. Through the continuing centuries they 
died. 

"The dead in Christ!" 

They are everywhere, under monumental 
piles, storied urn and marble bust, sleeping in 
unmarked graves, in the lonely church-yard, be- 
neath the moaning waves of the restless sea; 
those who have died by rack, by stake and tor- 



68 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

ture ; those who have fallen on the field of battle ; 
those who have passed out through the gates of 
disease and pain; and others, who have gone as 
when the sun sets and the colors fade softly and 
quietly from the evening sky. 

And they shall rise, e'-cery one in his own order, 
in his own company. 

Such an one as Ahel, who first told the story of 
redeeming blood, and whose lamb to slaughter 
led, was a picture of Him who was the Crucified, 
and is now the glorified Lamb of God. 

Enoch, who amid the slime and indescribable 
slush of antediluvian iniquity walked with God, 
and walked so intimately that God took him to 
Himself without dying. He shall not rise from 
the dead, but in the company of those who shall 
rise, he shall stand forth among the transfigured, 
changed and glorified. 

Noah, a preacher of righteousness who for one 
hundred and twenty years testified of the way of 
salvation, in the building of the ark condemned 
the world, and warned a mocking and gainsaying 
generation of the woe to come; Noah, who from 
within the security of the impervious ark, heard 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 69 

the rush and thunder of the mighty flood, and in 
every crash of it heard the accents of the Son of 
God saying that as it was in the days of Noah so 
should it be when the Son of Man should come; 
Noah who, on the hither side of the flood died 
in the faith of Christ. 

These shall rise in their own particular com- 
pany. 

The Patriarchs shall rise a separate and won- 
drous company, 

Abraham, who kept the flame of faith and de- 
votion burning on the altar of the home. 

Isaac, who yielded to his father's uplifted 
knife in the full confidence that, though he died, 
God would raise him from the dead. 

Jacob, who when Pharaoh said to him, "How 
old art thou?" answered, "The days of the years 
of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty 
years; few and evil have the days of the years 
of my life been ;" Jacob, who when the night of 
death came down, turned his face to the east, 
caught a gleam of the coming and eternal 
morn and with prophetic vision foretold that the 
sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a law- 



70 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

giver from between his feet till Shiloh should 
come; Jacob the memorial witness to the grace 
of God. 

Joseph, the one man in Holy Scripture against 
whom no charge of sin is made; Joseph, who 
when he was dying told them to wrap him up 
as a mummy is wrapped, put him in an Egyp- 
tian cofEn, carry him up to Palestine the Prom- 
ised Land, and place him in the cave of Mach- 
pelah. 

These shall rise and shine in their own par- 
ticular company. 

Such an one as Moses shall rise. Moses, who 
stood on Sinai's height as it shook and trembled; 
and who, amid the crash of thunders and the 
play of lightnings, waited while the finger of the 
living God wrote the ten commandments on their 
tables of "unquarried" stone; Moses, who hid- 
den in the cleft of the rock as the glory of the 
Lord passed by, beheld what that Lord should 
be in after days when, as incarnate God He 
should walk amid the sons of men ; Moses, who 
yonder on the bald and barren top of Nebo, be- 
neath its cloudless sky, at God's command laid 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 7 1 

down to die; and whose incorrupted body was 
buried by the hand of God ; Moses, who fifteen 
hundred years after in that body preserved from 
corruption as the perfect type of the body of his 
Lord, appeared with Him upon the Mount of 
Transfiguration and spake of the decease which 
He should accomplish at Jerusalem; Moses, 
who shall revisit the earth and die once more. 

Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his priestly 
sons. 

Joshua, the captain of the Lord's host who led 
them through the divided waters of the swell- 
ing Jordan. 

These and those associated with them, men 
and women of the unfaltering faith, whose spir- 
'itual eyes caught visions of the sacrificial cross, 
these shall rise together in their band. 

The prophets will rise in their own company, 

Isaiah, who wrote the fifty-third chapter, that 
chapter in which you see the lamb dumb before 
her shearers; in which you see the cross and the 
thieves on either side, the rich man's tomb, the 
resurrection and the triumph over death and the 
grave; that fifty-third chapter from which 



72 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Philip, the evangelist, preached the Gospel to 
the wayfaring eunuch as he went from Jerusalem 
to Gaza down, and ''beginning at that same 
scripture preached Jesus unto him." 

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet who, with his 
face washed in tears, looked forward to the woe 
of Jerusalem when the holy city should be tram- 
pled under foot. 

Ezekielj who by the river Chebar saw visions 
of God, and one like unto the Son of Man en- 
throned, high and lifted up above the glory.^ 

Daniel, who under the impulse of the Spirit 
of God looked down the coming ages and saw 
twenty-five hundred years of unrolling human 
history. He saw Cyrus at the head of his Per- 
sian followers, saw him open the two leaved 
gates of Babylon and overthrow the golden city. 
He saw Alexander arise from the midst of the 
Macedonian hills and with his brazen Greeks 
sweep eastward across the Granicus, beyond Ar- 
bela to the Indus and the Oxus, turn back to 
Babylon and die in the welter of a drunken de- 
bauch as the hand of God fell smashingly upon 
his far extended empire, breaking it into its four 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 73 

great and prophetic fragments. He looked on 
and saw Rome rise like a mighty colossus from 
the side of the yellow Tiber and stand with one 
foot on Europe and another on Asia. And his 
gaze has come on down to the surge of this red 
war, and beyond it to the rise of the ten demo- 
cratic kings and the last Kaiser who with his 
armies shall find their fateful overthrow beneath 
the walls of Jerusalem and in that ^Valley of de- 
cision," which is Jehoshaphat. 

There is Hosea who writing centuries ago 
foretold the very state of the Jews today, and 
Amos, and Joel, who tells of the gathering of the 
Gentile nations and the beating of ploughshares 
into swords and pruning hooks into spears be- 
fore it is possible that the swords shall be beaten 
back into ploughshares and the spears into prun- 
ing hooks; all the minor prophets to Malachi 
the closing pages of whose prophecy is bathed in 
the golden light of that sun of righteousness who 
shall arise with healing in His wings. 

These shall rise together, the company of ''the 
holy men of old" who spake as they were carried 



74 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

along by the Holy Spirit, and whose words are 
the outbreathed words of God. 

In one of the great libraries of this country, in 
a building of noble architecture and sober, deco- 
rative beauty, an American artist has wrought 
around the hall a frieze in which the iavo- 
lution and genius of it consist in the rugged 
and gothic like, solemn and all warning figures 
of these prophets, a wondrous frieze, speaking 
to Americans of the need of righteousness and 
truth; but in the morning of the resurrection 
these prophets, risen and living in glorified 
bodies, shall stand forth the shining, scintillating 
and quickened frieze of human immortality, giv- 
ing emphasis and splendor to the redeemed of 
God who with them shall constitute His won- 
drous and living temple. 

Among the risen and glorified throng shall be 
seen such an one as John the Baptist who dared 
to tell a debauched Herod he had no right to 
his brother's wife; that John the Baptist who 
was put to death because the wanton woman 
whom he had rebuked sent her half-naked and 
lawless daughter to dance before the king and 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 75 

SO appeal to his lust that at her request (and in- 
spired by her mother) he gave her the Baptist's 
head in a charger; John, of whom none born of 
woman has ever been greater, shall rise and con- 
front the murderous king and this dancing girl 
as together, they two, shall pass across the thresh- 
old of a final and deserved hell. John shall rise 
in the benediction of the First Resurrection and 
with him all who like him waited for the Mes- 
siah and prepared His way. 

Then amid the resurrection host shall be seen 
that mystic Body, that elect and covenant Bride, 
the Church. 

In that Church there will be distinct and sepa- 
rate companies. 

There shall stand forth the blessed company 
of the Holy Apostles. Peter, who drew forth his 
sword to defend the Lord, then denied Him with 
oaths and cursings, went out into the black night 
with broken heart, bitterness of remorse and 
tears of repentance; Peter, who at the close of 
after days given in full surrender to the Master's 
name refused, when they came to crucify him, 
to be crucified like his Lord, but demanded they 



76 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

should nail him to the cross head downward and 
let him die like that. 

James, who though he stood for law and much 
of Judaism, has given, under God, and by his in- 
spiration, the clearest vision of this age and dis- 
pensation of the ^^taking out." 

John, who leaned upon the Master's breast at 
supper and heard the inmost beating of His 
heart; John, who dwelt at last in Patmos for his 
Saviour's sake, saw His glory above the bright- 
ness of the noonday sun, heard His voice as the 
sound of many waters; at His dictation wrote 
the amazing seven letters to the seven churches, 
and the twenty-two chapters of that book of 
Revelation which like the ceiling of a Sistine 
chapel gives the solemn frescoes and the sculp- 
tured outlines of the Consummation hour. 

And last of all, that ''Called" Apostle Paul 
whom the Lord met on the road to Damascus, 
blinded for a moment with His glory, then trans- 
formed him into his ''bond slave" forever; 
through whom He sent fourteen epistles of the 
New Testament to the Church of Christ; that 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 77 

Paul whose one device is bannered forth in his 
far exultant cry, ^Tor me to live is Christ." 

This company of Apostles shall rise together. 

And along with them, the fathers of the 
Church, the mention of whose names recalls 
their genius, faith and consecration to the cross. 

Company after company will rise of saints and 
martyrs; men and women who did not count 
their lives dear unto them that they might pro- 
claim the story of redeeming love and grace and 
seal their faith with generous blood; multitudes 
whose names have never been known ; each shall 
rise in his or her own order; and as the stars 
differ one from another in glory so shall also 
these. 

And they shall arise in the bodies in which 
they died, the same, and yet, not the same; for, 
in the body of the believer there is inwrought at 
regeneration the basis of a new, yet old, body. 

Do with the dead body of the genuine Chris- 
tian what you may, that nucleus of the new one, 
like the heart of a planted seed, will be held by 
the Holy Ghost in union with the body of the 
risen Lord, and will wait the hour of germina- 



78 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

tion, the resurrection hour when, at the sound of 
His voice who is the Resurrection and the Life, 
it will bloom and burst forth to be the dwelling 
place, the unfading garment of the disembodied 
Christian soul ; a body of glory, shining brighter 
than any star of night or sun of day; a body of 
power and no longer of weakness; a pneumatic, 
and no longer a soulical, body; a body that shall 
be, not the beastly minister to the soul, but the 
flashing instrument of the spirit. 

This is the First Resurrection, 

And that word, ''resurrection," rang across 
Asia and Europe like the sound of silver trump- 
ets ; with the far echo of the sound there came a 
light as when the dawn breaks over a long and 
starless night. 

To know the sudden awakening, the marvel- 
lous effect produced by the utterance of that 
word, you need to look at the world of that hour. 

Look at Rome! 

What a Rome it was, with the golden house of 
Nero, the piled up palaces of the Palatine, the 
Forum crowded with basilicas, with arch and 
column. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 79 

Look down the Appian way as it stretches to 
Ostia and the sea. Receding right and left as far 
as the eye can reach the undulating Campagna, 
filled with cypress tree and garden, and red- 
roofed villas and far away vineyards where the 
swelling grapes purpled in the sun of slanting 
hills; and rising up and bordering this unique 
and inimitable roadway, temple like tombs and 
monuments and marble bastions. Draw near 
and read the sculptured epitaphs, each letter like 
a frozen tear congealed in the heart of despair 
as the living bid good-bye to the dead, and in the ^ 
stony speech of their own dead hopes, bid them 
good-bye forever. 

Over those tombs, those milestones of the dead, 
there breaks no single ray of hope. 

Then, suddenly, everywhere, men went forth 
proclaiming the resurrection of a man who had 
triumphed over death and the grave, and the as- 
sured resurrection of all who confessed their 
faith upon Him. He had risen. He would cause 
them to rise and live again. 

Death took on a new meaning. Men went 
forth to die; but no longer entered it as stoics 



8o THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

pass to hopeless doom, they approached it with 
joyous smile and entered it as conquerors pass be 
neath triumphal arch and scattered wreaths. A 
new name was given to the place of burial. It 
was no longer the spot where life went down to 
corruption, to dust and silence forever; on the 
contrary, these graveyards became '^cemeteries," 
"sleeping places." Here the body was laid away 
in the name of Him who is the victor over death, 
laid away to sleep, until the morning voice 
should bid them wake. 

And when, think you, shall this resurrection 
take place? 

I answer you — 

'At the SECOND COMING of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

As it is written : 

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
shall all be made alive. But every man in his own 
order; Christ the first fruits; afterward they 
that are Christ's, at His Coming . . . For the 
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel and the 
trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 8i 

first ... for the trumpet shall sound, and the 
dead shall be raised incorruptible." 

Hark! "If a man die shall he live again?"' 

Who is asking that? It is Job, asking it out of 
the long, long ago. 

Let us answer him. 

"Yes, Job, the dead in Christ shall rise and 
live again. They shall rise, and live and be im- 
mortal when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come 
a second time.'' 

Take away the Second Coming, spiritualize 
it, take it out of the preaching, repudiate it, say 
Paul and all who taught it were mistaken. 

What then? 

I answer, apart from the Second Coming of 
Christ you have not a single fragment of Scrip- 
ture which, under legitimate exegesis, warrants 
you even to expect the resurrection. 

Without the Second Coming of Christ there 
never will be a resurrection of the dead in Christ, 

If you deny the Second Coming of Christ, 
then go to the graves of those you loved, em- 
balmed in your tears and laid away in hope, and 
write over them the words, "never-more." 



82 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

If our Lord Jesus Christ does not come a Sec- 
ond time every Christian who dies will remain 
a disembodied ghost forever. 

And yet there are would-be wise and advanced 
teachers who talk about the unimportance of the 
Second Coming. 

Nay! The Second Coming is so important, so 
vital to faith and hope, that it is bound up with, 
inwrought with the whole principle and promise 
of the resurrection of the Christian dead, the 
dead in Christ. 

It is bound up with the doctrine and promise 
of the transfiguration of the living. 

It is written, that by one man sin entered the 
world and death by sin, and that death has passed 
upon all men ; and that it is appointed unto men 
once to die. 

From the beginning the scythe of death has 
swung an unhindered swath. It has spared 
neither rank nor sex, nor age; king and cotter, 
prince and peasant, high and low, young and old, 
have fallen before it like ripened grain before 
the reaper's blade. 

Tho3e of us who have passed the meridian of 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 83 

life have seen them go, great figures on the hori- 
zon of time; we have seen friends and relatives 
fall before the unhesitating blow. We who are 
alive begin to look at the gray hairs swiftly and 
surely coming amid the black or brown, at the 
wrinkles multiplying on face, on neck and hands. 
We wonder why we cannot walk so far today, or 
do so much, or so quickly in a day as we used 
to do. The fact is, death is approaching us, even 
while we talk of life and years and plans. Be- 
cause death cannot be ignored; because there is 
but a step betwixt us and that sudden snapping 
of the chord, that instant breaking of the pitcher 
at the well, business, contracts, marriage, are 
made in view of death; and because of its all- 
pervading presence and demand, men every- 
where say (and it is a phrase common to all lan- 
guage) , ^^one thing is certain, and that is, death." 

And yet, men and women, hear me! 

The one thing that is absolutely uncertain is 
death. 

Nothing in all the world is so uncertain as 
death — to the Christian. It is uncertain because 
it is absolutely sure and certain there will be a 



84 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

generation of Christians on the earth who will 
never die. 

They will be going about their daily avoca- 
tions. Some will be carrying burdens, stabbing 
themselves with the sharp daggers of perplexity; 
some will be standing at the cross-roads of hesi- 
tation, not knowing whether to turn to the right 
or the left, and the night and darkness coming 
down. Some will be old and some will be young. 
Some will be languishing on beds of pain, and 
some may be entering into the shadow of death ; 
when, suddenly, each shall feel a thrill, a quiver, 
a throb of ecstasy and delight, a sense of freedom 
and splendid power; the dim eyes will see, the 
feeble knees will become strong, the nervous, 
trembling hands will become fresh and young. 
Youth, like an elixir, will run through every 
fibre, each Christian shall shine, and each shall 
see the other shine in immortal beauty. They 
shall stand changed, transfigured, glorified; 
Christians who shall never be measured for a 
shroud, and for whose bodies the graves shall 
never yawn. 

And when is this to be? 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 85 

I answer, At the Second Coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, 

As it is written : 

"We shall not all sleep (we shall not all die) 
but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the 
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the 
trumpet shall sound . . . and we shall be 
changed (transformed) for this corruptible must 
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on 
immortality/^ 

Immortality. 

What a word is that ! How men have dreamed 
of it, and sung of it, and written of it, and sighed 
and turned their faces to the wall and given it up. 

Years ago I stood before the Rostra in the 
Forum and tried to recall the hour when Cicero, 
yonder on the Velian hill perhaps, talked of im- 
mortality, read the Phaedo and sighingly said: 
"Plato thou reasonest well, but — " 

And that was all. 

And all the speech and all the writing, and all 
the rhetoric, and all the philosophizing to-day, 
leaves man standing at the edge of the grave 
without any answer that does not make it a guess, 



86 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

forcing from his lips the bitter soliloquy, ^'To be 
or not to be — that is the question?^' 

But, listen to the proclamation that the Son of 
God is coming a Second time, and that His shout 
will ring down the heavens and raise the dead, 
and then, it is written : 

^^We which are alive and remain, shall be 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to 
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord." 

The dead raised, the living changed at the 
Second Coming; and this might be any moment, 
any hour, ^^when ye think not!^ 

And yet, there are men standing in the pulpit 
with an open Bible and the very promise and as- 
surance of God leaping to their vision, who actu- 
ally dare to say to the hungry souls before them 
that the Second Coming of Christ is an unimpor- 
tant doctrine, a questionable event. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is not only bound up with the doctrine ef the 
resurrection of the dead in Christ and the cer- 
tainty of a non-dying and gloriously transfigured 
generation of Christians, it is hound up with the 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 87 

doctrine of sonship with God and likeness to 
Christ, 

Sonship with God is not a natural prerogative. 
All men are not sons of God. God is n*ot the 
Father of all men. He is the Creator of all men, 
but Father only of those who believe in His Son ; 
as it is written : 

^Tor ye are all the children of God by faith 
in Christ Jesus." 

The moment an individual believes in our 
Lord Jesus Christ; the moment he oflfers Him 
by faith as his sin-offering, his sacrifice for sin 
and his personal substitute, that moment God the 
Father accepts the death of Christ on the cross 
as though the believer had been executed and 
done to death there. He transfers the obedience 
of Christ to the benefit of the believer. He ac- 
cepts Christ risen from the dead as his repre- 
sentative, as his righteousness ; so that it is writ- 
ten, "God hath made him to be sin for us, who 
knew no sin; that we might be made the right- 
eousness of God in him/' Then Christ the risen 
Lord as the Second Man, as the new head of the 
race, communicates His own perfect life to the 



88 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

believer and gives him the Holy Spirit to dwell 
in him as the seal of redemption, the guarantee 
of salvation, and the pledge of immortality. 
The believer is then linked up to the body and 
life of the Lord. He becomes so identified with 
Him that it is said, he is ''joined to the Lord," 
and that he is ''one spirif with Him, of His Ytvy 
essence. He becomes a son of God, not only by 
sacrificial and legal relations but by actual union 
with the Father through the Son. 

But, while as believers, we receive a new life, 
a new spiritual nature, and exalted, heavenly de- 
sires, the old nature remains in us. It never 
changes. You may starve a tiger, so starve him 
that you can keep him under. Give him a taste 
of blood and he will turn on you for more. This 
old nature is the flesh, and will be flesh to the end 
of the age. It is our privilege to starve it and 
keep it under by means of the new nature; for, 
while we have two natures as Christians, we have 
but one responsibility, and one responsibility be- 
cause we remain but one personality. Again and 
again we fail to exercise that responsibility, 
gratify the demand of the old nature, and falling 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 89 

under its claims do not live in nor reveal the di- 
vine life that is ours by spiritual birthright. 
The world which never reads the Bible but reads 
us as living epistles takes note of our failures and 
registers them against the profession we make as 
sons of God ; but even when a Christian lives on 
the highest plane and seems to fulfill every re- 
quirement of the profession he makes, even then 
the world, while admitting his moral value, can- 
not see that essentially he is any different from 
others who make no such profession. They do 
not believe he has any distinct nature, or is any 
more entitled to be called a son of God. The 
truth is, we are kings and princes in disguise. 
The world does not know us; as it is written: 
''The world knoweth us not/^ But our sonship 
shall be made manifest and our likeness unto 
Christ revealed when He Himself shall come a 
SECOND time. 

Once Peter the Great, so it is said, after a 
day's work as a common laborer in the shipyard 
(but his identity unknown) stood with a group 
of fellow-laborers not far from where the Im- 
perial Guards were changed. The men were 



90 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

full of talk and grew quite bitter in their de- 
nunciation of the government, and the condi- 
tion of the times; as the group increased the 
matter for a moment looked moblike and threat- 
ening. Just then the sound of a trumpet was 
heard with its vibrant note quavering upon the 
frosty air. In a moment Peter loosed and flung 
back his workman's blouse and revealed beneath 
it the uniform of the Guard, blazing with the in- 
signia of royalty. There was silence in the 
crowd, then with one accord they fell at his feet 
to own their Czar. Our Lord is coming, the 
trumpet will sound, and the fleshly garment that 
doth disguise us will be flung aside and we shall 
stand forth in all the beauty and all the glory of 
our imperial sonship. 

Many years ago when preaching in the coun- 
try-side, some one gave me a half-dozen poplar 
sticks with huge lumps of dried mud on the ends, 
telling me to keep them in my study; that some 
day those mud lumps would open and I would 
be surprised. I placed them in a long neck jar 
and forgot them. Some weeks later when re- 
turning to my study after a day spent in pastoral 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 91 

visitation, I noticed the sticks were disarranged, 
some had fallen on the table, all were cracked 
and pieces of dried clay lay on the floor. I won- 
dered who had been disturbing things when a 
whirring sound made me look up, and floating 
gracefully here and there against the walls were 
six of the largest and finest red-bodied moths I 
had ever seen. They had been shut up as chrys- 
alids within these muddy cases, and in the ful- 
ness of their time had broken forth and soared 
into a realm of light and air. Like them, we too, 
the dead and the living shall break forth from 
this muddy vesture of mortality which doth en- 
cximber us, soar into the realm of light and air to 
meet a descending Lord and be like Him. 

It is written, "We shall be like him; for we 
shall see him as he is." 

As the dawn breaks through the night and 
paints the lifted mountain peak with roseate hue, 
fills the valfey with its waves of light, turns river, 
rivulet and stream to silver and pours forth its 
illumination, until each tree and branch and 
5tone and blade of grass stands forth as though 



92 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

it had been etched in fire and flame by artist 
needle; so, at the sight of Him, each child of 
God will be transfigured, clothed upon with 
heavenly beauty, and made like unto Him. 

And this apocalypse of personal splendor, let 
it be remembered, is at the SECOND COMING of 
our Lord. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the doctrine and the promise 
of rewards. 

As believers we are saved without good works 
of any sort; but saved that we may do good 
works of every sort. We do nothing to be saved, 
that we may do something after we are saved. 
We are not only called to faith but service in His 
name. The Christian who says he believes and 
then sits down and is a spiritual do-nothing is a 
pitiful puzzle to the angels of God and a source 
of mockery and rejoicing to the demons of the 
pit; and the time is coming when as believers 
we shall have to render an account to the Lord 
for the gifts He has bestowed upon us, for the 
opportunities He has placed before us, and for 
the devotion or the lack of it which may have 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 93 

been the character of our days. No matter how 
small the service if it has been rendered in His 
name to the full of our ability and opportunity, 
we shall receive a reward. 

But when are the rewards to be given? 

They are not to be given at death, when the 
departing believer enters Heaven. 

Not a single saint of God has yet been re- 
warded. 

Paul has not received his reward. 

Listen to what he says : 

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished 
my course. I have kept the faith; henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give 
me at that day." 

And what is that day? 

When the Lord comes a SECOND time; as it is 
written : 

"The Son of man shall come in the glory of 
his Father, with his angels, and then shall he re- 
ward every man according to his works." 

And again it is written: 



94 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is 
with me, to give every man as his work shall be." 

If you have only given a cup of cold water in 
His name, or given the glad hand for His sake 
that you might lift some soul out of the deep and 
guide his feet into the way of life, you will not 
be forgotten ; you will get your reward when the 
Lord comes. 

But mark this! The Lord is so interested in 
His own coming, He is waiting for it with such 
patience, such hope, and such profound interest, 
that His attention is specially drawn to those 
who love the thought of it, and wish Him to 
come; so much do those who love the SECOND 
COMING appeal to the Lord that in the day when 
He is revealed He will give a special crown to 
those who love it, have been devoted to it, and 
stood forth to proclaim it; as it is written: 

"And not to me only (that is, not to Paul only 
will a crown of righteousness be given) but unto 
all them that love his appearing/' 

If you wish a crown of righteousness let your 
heart go out In love and devotion and earnest de- 
light at the thought of His SECOND COMING, 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 95 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the promise of satisfaction. 

Satisfied! 

Who in this world has ever been satisfied? 

Go back to that far time v/hen Solomon was 
king. 

He had wealth such as no king before nor 
since ; gold and silver poured into his coffers like 
waters from exhaustless mountain springs. He 
built palaces and temples. He had stables with 
thousands of horses. He had chariots. He made 
parks and lakes and water courses. He planted 
gardens and orchards. He had pools and ponds 
for fish of all sorts. He gathered musicians and 
instruments of music. He had men servants and 
maid servants born in his house. His table was 
loaded and groaning with luxuries. He was 
clothed in robes woven on Tyrian looms. He 
gave himself up to art, to literature. He had 
more wisdom and knowledge than any man who 
ever lived before or since. He gave himself up 
to every desire of his heart. He refrained his 
hand from nothing his heart desired. He be- 
came an epicure, a gourmand^ a materialist, a 



96 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

confirmed sensualist. He had a harem of seven 
hundred women, wives, concubines and mis- 
tresses. He drank of every fountain. He tasted 
of every joy. 

His glory was so great, the Queen of Sheba 
who came from the uttermost part of the earth 
to see him, said the half had not been told; and 
after he had tasted every spring of human pleas- 
ure, drained every cup to the dregs and passed 
through every experience wealth and absolute 
power could give, he cried out that all was vanity 
of vanities, and there was no profit in anything 
under the sun. 

Satisfied! None has ever been satisfied. Not 
Midas, turning to gold all things he touched; 
not Croesus, burning on his funeral pyre of 
heaped up and useless wealth. 

Satisfied! Not the beggar at the gate ; not the 
decent poverty that painfully seeks to make ends 
meet; not the man whose desires find no finan- 
cial barrier. Go under the lustre of the rich man's 
chandeliers, sink your feet in the yielding soft- 
ness of his easy carpets, walk through his galleries 
of priceless paintings, admire his garnered 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 



97 



bibelots from every land, let him tell with pride 
of his poor beginnings and the plans his ambition 
and wealth make possible ; and in an unguarded 
moment you will hear him sigh and know there 
is yet some one, and lacking, thing, that keeps 
him from being satisfied. 

Satisfied! O no, men are not satisfied. They 
are tossed and restless, and the chief desire of 
their hearts, the one thing, whatever it may be 
which they imagine will make them satisfied, 
like the will o' the wisp, flies ever before and 
eludes them. 

But hark! j 

I hear a voice coming across the ages. 

"I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy 
likeness." 

What is that? It is the sound of a harp and the 
refrain of a song. It is David the king and he 
sings and he says, he shall be satisfied, satisfied 
when he awakes in the likeness of the Lord. 

He and all the dead in Christ shall awake at 
the SECOND COMING of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Yes, my soul! that is the hour of satisfaction; 



98 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

that is the one event that will not disappoint — 
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

And when He comes we shall fall at His feet 
and confess the half has never been told us. 

In any hour of sorrow or trial or burden and 
great unreached desire, remember, you shall be 
satisfied and fully satisfied when Jesus Comes. 
Your perfect satisfaction shall greet you at His 
SECOND COMING. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is hound up with the doctrine of the recognition 
of the dead. 

There is one question which rises involunta- 
rily to the lips of those who are bereaved of their 
loved ones. They ask : 

"Shall we see and know them again? In the 
great hereafter shall we meet and joyfully greet 
each other?" 

And this question is asked because death is 
a great awakener and a great revealer. When 
some one with whom we have been living is 
suddenly taken from us we realize we have not 
appreciated them as we should; that we have 
been almost brutal with them at times, not in 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 99 

word or deed, but in the lack of that warmth, 
that sincere recognition, we should have given 
them ; and we feel we would they might be given 
to us again that we might repair the sad mistakes, 
and that we might try over again and make the 
relationship of life to life all it should have been. 

Some years ago at the close of one of my meet- 
ings a man of about forty or thereabout ap- 
proached me, and I saw by his manner that he 
was greatly moved. With a sort of hesitating 
and yet earnest manner he said: 

"Do you think we shall know each other in 
Heaven?" 

He saw my look of inquiry. Then he told me 
he was the youngest of three boys. The family 
lived in the New England hills on a small and 
scrubby farm. The father died. The mother 
and the two boys endeavored to carry on the 
home. This youngest son had been of a hasty 
and passionate temper. He was quick to speak, 
saying often rash and regrettable things, but just 
as quickly and sincerely sorry for them. His 
mother was devoted to him, and In spite of his 
unconscious tendency to a lawless spirit, loved 



lOO THE SECOND COA/fiNG OF CHRIST 

his mother. He went away from home. He 
married, had a family, was successful. Twice a 
year perhaps, once always, he would visit the old 
homestead, while the mother, growing old, still 
lived with the eldest son. She had recently died 
— and looking at me, this one-time boy and now 
grown and successful man, said, with a tremor in 
his voice he could not conceal : 

''Mother died some weeks ago. I went back 
to the old hills to see her laid away side by side 
with my father in the village church-yard; 
and Doctor Haldeman," he said, 'Vhen I stood 
in the narrow little parlor with its faded paper 
on the walls, and looked down at the thin, worn 
face and the white hair, all my boyhood days 
came back to me, and I saw my mother as I never 
saw her before. I saw how often she had just 
waited for some word from me that might have 
told her how I really loved her and appreciated 
her; and Doctor," he said, and the man moved 
me to the core as he said it, "Doctor, I'd give ten 
thousand dollars if I could have that little old 
mother back again for ten minutes that I might 
just tell her all that is in my heart about her now. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST loi 

Do you think I'll — I'll have that chance, Doc- 
tor?" 

And I tell you what I told him, that if you 
sincerely believe in the Son of God as your Re- 
deemer and Lord, you will meet and know the 
Christian dead who have gone beyond you. 

Listen to the word of comfort that comes sing- 
ing to your soul from the lips of an inspired 
apostle : 

'^Then shall I know even as also I am known." 

And that ''then' shall be when He comes a 
SECOND time : when we shall see Him as He is ; 
for, it is written that He, Himself, shall descend 
from heaven. He will raise the dead, transfigure 
the living and both shall be caught up together 
to meet Him in the air; and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord; and because of this the apostle 
bids us not to sorrow over our dead even as 
others which have no hope; and to comfort one 
another with the assurance that at the Lord's 
Coming we shall be together again. 

It must be plain to you and the simplest or 
most callous mind that should the Lord come 
and we not know each other the exhortation to 



I02 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

comfort one another with the thought of the 
risen dead and the transfigured living meeting 
together in His presence would be an exhorta- 
tion of meaningless and useless words distilling 
for us, not the essence of comfort, but of bitter- 
ness and disappointed longing. 

Nay, there shall be no disappointment. We 
shall know even as we are known, and that when 
our Lord comes the SECOND time. 

Resurrection from the dead, transfiguration of 
the living, the manifestation of sonship with 
God, likeness to Christ, rewards of faith and 
service, the satisfied soul, recognition and cogni- 
tion of the dead, are all bound up with, and de- 
pendent for their fulfilment on, the Coming of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

And yet men in the face of all this have the 
hardihood to say it is an unimportant doctrine; 
and that it is an unsettling and disturbing theme 
to preach. 

What shall be said of those, whether in pulpit 
or pew, who have either the boldness or the ig- 
norance to utter such things? 

Not only is the Second Coming of Christ 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 103 

bound up with every fundamental doctrine, it is 
equally bound up with every sublime promise. 

It is bound up with the promise of victory 
over the devil. 

God never created a devil. 

He created an angel of the rank of cherubim 
and their head, beautiful, full of wisdom, might 
and power. God gave him this fresh created 
world as a province of the infinite empire. He 
was carried away with the contemplation of 
himself, saw in himself limitless possibilities 
of rulership and glory, was unwilling to sub- 
ordinate his immense personality to that of an- 
other, revolted against the all-enclosing impact 
of the divine presence, determined to break 
through, make his own selfhood the sufficient 
and all-pervading environment, rebelled against 
God and lost the world. The second verse of the 
first chapter of Genesis tells us that the earth 
which had originally been created under the 
light of sun and moon and stars, fell into chaos 
from which after a season whose length is not 
determined God delivered it, reforming it In 
six days and creating man, set him up In the 



104 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

place of Satan to be its head, the ruler and ad- 
ministrator. 

Satan led man to turn his back upon the of- 
fered partnership with God, and enter into part- 
nership with himself. In this Satan became the 
master and man the dupe and slave. He has led 
man into idolatry, into all false religions, into 
war and rapine, murder and lust. He has in- 
vented false philosophies, and transforming him- 
self into an angel of light, has sent forth his min- 
isters as ministers of righteousness, but a right- 
eousness which denies the blood. 

He is the adversary of God and man. 

No sooner do you seek the path of righteous- 
ness, of spirituality, and truth than you find him 
flinging his barricades across the way, or thrust- 
ing out the hand that will misguide and lead 
astray. He is every where and in all things op- 
posed to God, and the adversary of whatsoever 
may turn the thoughts of men to God. 

Go, attend your evening prayer-meeting. At 
its close go down the brightly illuminated street. 
Everywhere red lips, white hands, jewelled 
fingers, lives full of passion, the glare, the glitter, 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 105 

the clink of glass, the sparkle of wine, the care- 
less laughter, the insidious speech, the wide-flung 
doors of amusement, the offered pleasures of sin, 
at every turn the invitation to gratify, to culti- 
vate the flesh, to excite the blood, to stir the ani- 
mal, to set on fire the veins, to appeal to ambi- 
tion, to pride, to envy, to disregard all restraint 
and — to forget God. 

Talk about converting the world by the Gos- 
pel, changing, moulding, making over all this 
steaming, sweating, seething mass of unspiritual 
flesh and palpitating sensualism, making it over 
into cool, clean unfevered spirituality! Talk 
about the Church, by the doors of whose dark- 
ened buildings the crowd is surging; talk about 
the Church overthrowing the devil and bringing 
in the reign of abiding purity, chastity and devo- 
tion to the things of God ! 

Let the carnival of the devil, this grip of 
Satan on the bodies, on the unloosed animalism 
of man, his directing and compelling inspiration 
for the mad service he invites warn you against 
the folly of any such concept. 

Nor is he simply the smiling fiend behind the 



Io6 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

gay and mocking crowd, but in the name of 
science, free thought, progressive ideas and lib- 
eral spirit; in the name of culture and charity 
and the betterment of human life every day lead- 
ing men away from the written Word of God, 
away from the light that shines from an open 
grave, shutting out from men the vision of a risen 
and a loving Christ who is alone the God to be 
revealed to men. 

Without efifort every day he seems to win and 
the crowd like dumb driven cattle follow in the 
way. 

He seems to win, and God again and again 
seems far off, and faith faints, and hope seems 
wingless. 

Is it always to be so? 

No! Thank God. No. The devil is to be 
overthrown and bound and wholly vanquished 
at the last. The long descending career from 
the cherubic glory will reach its nadir, the end 
will come. God and Christ and righteousness 
will win. 

But how and when? 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1^7 

Again I answer you — at the SECOND Coming 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

It will be at that hour and under those circum- 
stances so tremendously painted by the Holy 
Spirit in the nineteenth chapter of the Revela- 
tion; in that hour when He shall come forth 
followed by the armies of heaven, riding on the 
steeds of judgment. Then shall He lay hold on 
Satan, bind him, cast him into the pit and shut 
him up for a thousand years. From thence shall 
he be transferred finally to that cage whose every 
bar is a flame of fire ; and where forever he shall 
be tormented as the result of that consciousness 
which sought to eliminate from itself the will 
and way of God. Forever as a prisoner of state, 
he shall be the eternal witness that he who seeks 
to exalt himself shall be cast down; from the 
depths of his awful misery he shall bear witness 
to the exaltation of that Christ who, although 
from unbegun eternity clothed with the form 
and appearing of God and from everlasting His 
visibility and word of utterance, did not, Satan- 
like, grasp at and hold on to that equality, but 
for the sake of us men and our redemption, and 



lo8 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

for the display of divine and infinite grace was 
willing to lay it aside, put off the robe of His 
splendor, and clothe Himself with the limita- 
tion, the poverty and humiliation of our hu- 
manity. 

Victory for God and overthrow of the devil 
is certified at the SECOND COMING of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the promise that creation shall 
he delivered from the bondage of corruption. 

When man sinned and fell from his exalted 
plane, God put a ban, a curse and limitation on 
the earth. He said it should be checked on the 
side of its fruitfulness in worthful seeds: but 
that it should bring forth the hindering and 
sterilizing thorns and thistles. 

And God has kept His Word and held the 
ban. 

Go into that field, subsoil it deeply with your 
modern plough ; then plant it well with best of 
seeds; and lo, weeds and thorns shall spring up 
to choke and keep them down. Plant a garden, 
and unless with tireless vigil you watch both 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 109 

night and day, root out and overturn with merci- 
less stroke of hoe and spade the multiplying 
thorns and creeping, worthless vines, they will 
so grow, invade and insist their rights upon the 
elect and chosen ground, that almost before you 
are aware of it, they will, like lustful villains 
and brutal robbers, be strangling and robbing 
the honest plants of life and fruitful gain. 

Everywhere it is so. You must sweat and toil 
and labor on to bring forth your harvest; but, 
you need never turn a hand's breadth to help the 
weeds and thorns and worthless multiplying 
things ; leave them alone, ignore them, let wind 
and rain and storm, the wind and rain and storm 
that devastate and ruin your blooming flowers 
and precious growths, let them alone, and they 
will grow and thrive and riot in a perfect de- 
bauch of rank increase, running over stoniest and 
most repelling ground to show their strength, 
reach out and spoil all not of their kind. 

To poisonous weeds and evil things there is no 
apparent limit, no needed care to make them 
bloom; but always and everywhere and in all 
things there is limitation and hindrance when 



1 10 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

you seek to expand and make more fruitful that 
which is good. 

There is limitation in the earth. There is a 
ban upon it, sterile wastes, barren deserts and re- 
sisting rocks. 

Because of this limitation and hindrances hu- 
man life is a struggle ; a struggle which begins 
at birth and manifests itself in the very hour V 
article of death. 

Ever}^vhere under this ban and curse of thorn 
and thistle and the iron bond of hindered good, 
there is corruption and the helpless bondage of 
it. Everywhere there is the disintegration, the 
moaning and the lamentation; everywhere there 
is, as the apostle calls it, ''The sufferings of this 
noiv time/^ 

That the earth is capable of a million fold 
greater yield of bounty is demonstrated every day 
as science slowly applies its increasing knowl- 
edge, and here and there lays hold of some 
hitherto unknown and operating force; but no 
matter in what direction the push, always there 
is the interfering force and hindrance. 

That man is capable, has in him mentally, as- 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 1 1 

sets of power for greater things, is demonstrated 
not only by the things he does, but by the things 
he attempts to do and cannot. 

But this ban is to be taken off. This imposed 
curse is to be removed. The earth is to be loos- 
ened from her gyves. She is to bound forward 
as a fruitful mother and from her quivering 
bosom bring forth in such abundance that the 
xry desert shall blossom as the rose. 

It will only be necessary to touch the earth and 
waters will spring forth from the wilderness, 
fruit from the naked bough. Famine and hun- 
ger, weariness and the sweat of toiling men shall 
come to an end. Pain and disease shall depart. 
Sorrow shall cease to brew its tears. The in- 
habitants of the land shall no more say, "I am 
sick." 

And the earth, creation itself, we are told, is 
on the tiptoe of expectation waiting for this 
promised deliverance. 

And when shall it come? 

Neither the genius, the science, nor the in- 
creasing knowledge of man can bring it about. 

It is to be brought about at the "manifestation 



112 THE SECOND COMIXG OF CHRIST 

of the sons of God;" for, as it is literally writ- 
ten: 

^'The creation is on the tiptoe of expectation 
waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God 
. ,, . the creation itself shall be delivered from 
the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the 
glory of the sons of God." 

And when shall the sons of God be manifested 
so that their manifestation shall be the signal 
for the loosening of creation's bond and bond- 
age? 

The answer is, and should be self evident, at 
the SECOND COMING of our Lord Jesus Christ; 
as it is written : 

^'When Christ who is our life* shall be mani- 
fested, then shall ye also be manifested with 
him in glory." 

Not only is the Second Corning of our Lord 
Jesus Christ bound up 'tcith every fundamental 
doctrine and subli?ne promise, it is, also, hound 
up ivith every practical exhortation to Christian 
obligation, service and character. 

It is bound up icith the exhortation to meet 
together on the Lord^s Day, 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 1 3 

The apostle exhorts believers not to forsake 
the assembling of themselves together, "as the 
manner," he says of some is. 

It was the manner of some in the apostle's 
day. Absenteeism had begun in the apostolic 
Church. It is a widespread contagion today. 
There are said to be a million Protestants in 
this city who rarely, if ever, attend church. 
Multitudes of professed Christians remain in 
bed on Lord's Day morning; or, spend the fore- 
noon reading the Sunday newspapers; in the 
afternoon go out on the plea of health and recre- 
ation to play golf or drive in automobile; or, 
taking time off of God turn the day which is the 
Lord's and not theirs into a day of visitation, 
family reunion or social pleasures. It is a holi- 
day, no longer what the word originally meant, 
a "holy day." 

Some of the reasons Christians give for stay- 
ing home or away from church on "Sunday" are 
so amazing, that the insincerity and folly of them 
are openly manifest, even to those who half 
shamefacedly make them. 

So marked has become this deterioration in re- 



1 14 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

spect to the Lord's Day and the house of God, 
that a "go to church" campaign has been in- 
augurated, even, by the daily papers. Some of 
the reasons suggested why people should go to 
church are fairly good, others grotesque. Many, 
if not most of them are written by persons who 
are "religious'^ rather than spiritual. The Chris- 
tian who goes to church conscientiously, even 
though he should sleep through the service, 
nevertheless, by his presence testifies his faith in 
an empty tomb and the throne of God filled by 
a man who rose from that tomb. 

But the motive by which the apostle appeals 
to Christians not to forsake the assembling of 
themselves together on the Lord's Day is the 
fact that our Lord is coming a SECOND time. 
He says : 

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 
together, as the manner of some is ; but exhort- 
ing one another; and so much the more as ye see 
the day approaching . . . for yet a little while, 
and he that shall come will come, and will not 
tarry." 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 1 5 

is bound up with the exhortation to Break 
Bread, to eat the Lord's Supper. 

The Breaking of Bread, or the Lord's Supper, 
is intended to memorialize the Lord's death. 

The bread is the symbol of His crucified 
body. 

The wine is the blood poured forth as the seal 
of the covenant. 

The ordinance is intended to teach that the 
blood of sacrifice is the only ground of approach 
to a holy God ; that the death of Christ is a sac- 
rifice for sin (not the death of a martyr, not 
the death of one who came too far ahead of his 
time and was "torn in pieces by the whirling 
wheel of the world's evil") ; that His body was 
given to bear the judgment due to our sins; that 
Hi? blood is a witness He has by and through 
His death met and answered all the claims of 
divine righteousness against the chief of sinners. 

The Lord's Supper is a memorial picture of 
the scene outside the gates of Jerusalem, of that 
sacrificially stained cross whereon He died for 
us; and when we gather at the table we may 
well by faith suddenly see Him hanging there. 



1 16 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

turning His blood-stained face towards us, look- 
ing at each one of us and saying in voice that 
should' penetrate to the very depth and core of 
our souls : ''I am dying here and giving my life 
a ransom for thee! What art thou ready to sac- 
rifice and give to me?" 

This ordinance is to be celebrated; so it is 
v^ritten : 

"Till he come." 

Hear v^hat the apostle says : 

"Ye do shew the Lord's death till He 
come." 

The horizon of the Lord's Table then is — 
The second coming. 

Seated at that table on the Lord's Day (the 
day of resurrection) we are on resurrection 
ground, judgment behind us, glory before us. 

Behind us the cross where we were judged in 
the suffering and death of our substitute; be- 
fore us the Coming of our Lord and the glory 
and immortality He will bring us. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the exhortation to love God. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 117 

"The Lord direct your hearts into the love of 
God, and into the patient waiting for Christ." 

Is there anything more practical than the ex- 
hortation to love God? And here it is bound up 
with and identified with the attitude of waiting 
for Christ. 

On the margin it is written, "the patience of 
Christ;" but the patience of Christ is that pa- 
tience He exercises because of the exhortation of 
His Father who when He received Him into 
heaven and bade Him sit upon the throne, said 
unto Him, "Sit thou at my right hand, until I 
make thine enemies thy footstool." He tells 
Him that the rod or sceptre of His power shall 
be extended from Zion, that He shall rule in the 
midst of His enemies, and that His people (the 
Jews) shall be willing in the day of His power. 
(Psalm no.) 

This is the patience of Christ, and when the 
apostle prays the Lord may direct our hearts 
into the love of God and the patience of Christ, 
he is praying that while our hearts flow out in 
love and praise to God the Father we are to be 
full of the patience of Christ, and with Him 



1 1 8 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

wait in confidence and peace for tKe hour of His 
return. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the exhortation to love one an- 
other, 

"The Lord make you to increase and abound 
in love toward one another ... to the end he 
may establish your hearts unblameable before 
God, even our Father, at the Coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." 

We are to love one another as Christians. 

It was the love of Christians for each other, 
their desire to help and bless each other which 
drew the attention of the world to the early 
Church. They said, "See, how these Christians 
love one another." 

And we are exhorted to keep this flame of 
mutual love and helpfulness burning because the 
Lord is coming. 

Surely if He came and found a lack of love 
and Christian sympathy in the Church it would 
be an unhappy revelation and would afifect such 
a Church and such Christians as they should 
stand before His judgment seat. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 119 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the exhortation to patience. 

"Be patient brethren unto the coming of the 
Lord ... Be ye also patient, stablish your heart : 
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh/^ 

This is an exhortation to patience in the midst 
of life's trials and perplexities. The trials and 
perplexities are great; but all problems will be 
solved when the Lord comes. The apostle does 
not say they will be solved when we die and go 
to heaven and thus bid us to hold on and endure 
till such a summons comes; nay! he bids us to 
be patient not only because the Lord is coming, 
but because the Coming of the Lord draweth 
nigh. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the exhortation to a holy life. 

He who imagines it is permitted him to pro- 
fess faith in Christ and then live a careless, god- 
less life, greatly deceives himself. 

By faith we come into union with a once 
crucified, but now risen and living Christ; and 
if this faith be genuine; if it be something more 
than idle words upon a thoughtless tongue; if 



120 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

the confession of our lips be the expression of 
our heart, the conviction and seal of the Spirit, 
then there must needs be, ''the things which ac- 
company salvation; ''there must be a hearty 
turning away from the old life, the old char- 
acter, bringing forth of fruit meet for repent- 
ance, and the daily demonstration of a life that 
shall demonstrate, not only that the Son of God 
is on His Father's throne in heaven, but that He 
is as to life and nature, enthroned in that Chris- 
tian, is in him the radiant and inspiring hope of 
glory. 

The endeavor to live this life finds its appeal 
in the fact and doctrine of our Lord's SECOND 
Coming; as it is written: 

"And I pray God your whole spirit, and soul 
and body he preserved blameless unto the Com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ/^ 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the exhortation to moderation. 

"Let your moderation be known to all men." 

The word, "moderation," is "mildness," and 
really means "gentleness." 

Our Lord Jesus Christ while true Son was 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 2 1 

real man ; as a real man He was in essence and 
character — a gentleman. He was full of com- 
passion and gracious sympathy. He moved 
among men as quietly as the sunlight falls upon 
the earth; like the sunlight, He revealed the 
stain, but took no spot upon Himself. He spoke 
with authority, but His voice was modulated and 
His speech exact. When He bade the storm be 
hushed on Galilee, it was as when a mother softly 
bids her babe be still, and fret no more. Master- 
fulness and power were His, but gentleness so 
great that children rested peacefully on His 
breast. It is never said He laughed, and there is 
no record that He smiled (how could He when 
He knew the woe of men) , but in His mien there 
was the calm of an unruffled soul, and the dig- 
nity and refinement of a life whose every thought 
and word and deed was the mode of holiness and 
love. The keenest invective He spoke had in it 
none of the vituperation of men of coarse and 
noisy mould, but the clear and trumpet-sound of 
unapologetic truth. 

The Apostle Paul, inspired and moved and 
fashioned by the risen Son of God was a pol- 



122 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

ished soul, a courteous gentleman. Writing to 
the Thessalonians he says: 

'We were gentle among you, even as a nurse 
cherisheth her children." 

Watch him in his attitude before kings and 
governors, the women gathered by the seashore 
or the trembling jailer at his feet. He it is who 
under the inspiration of the Spirit exhorts us to 
let our moderation, our gentleness be known. 

The Christianity that does not make a maq 
in all his speech and ways a gentlermn and a 
woman in all her attitude and words a gentle- 
woman, is not the Christianity of a Paul nor the 
inspiration of the Son of God. 

And this apostolic exhortation to mildness, to 
moderation and gentleness is made in view of, 
and by an appeal to the fact of, the SECOND 
Coming of our Lord; as it is written: 

'Xet your moderation be known to all men. 
The Lord is at hand/' 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the exhortation to watch- 
fulness. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST ^ ^3 

It is the Son of God Himself who gives the 
exhortation. He says : 

"And what I say unto you, I say unto all, 
watch." 

And He says it because of His antecedent 
warning to them, that although He is going 
away like the householder into a far country, 
into heaven, like that householder He will come 
back, and in an uncertain hour; an hour so un- 
certain that they must needs watch — "lest," as 
He says, "coming suddenly, he find you sleep- 

ing." 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is hound up with the exhortation to Christian 
activity. 

"It is high time to awake out of sleep; for 
now is our salvation nearer (that is, the coming 
of the Lord to save our bodies — raise the dead 
and change the living) than when we believed. 

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand 
(and therefore His coming for us; it is His 
coming which introduces the day) let us there- 
fore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put 
on the armour of light" 



124 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

This dispensation is going, another is coming 
— the Day of Christ, the day of right and truth 
and divine triumph. That day will begin by the 
Coming of the Lord for His Church, coming in 
the night. He is coming as a thief. It will not 
do for us as Christians to be asleep. We must 
keep awake. We must be on the alert; not only 
wearing His name, but acting in His name. 
Could you find any stronger or more practical 
exhortation than this? Awaking, putting ofif the 
night clothes, putting on the day clothes, putting 
on armour, living as though we were already in 
the day of Christ; and this appeal made by the 
fact and imminency of His Coming? 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is hound up with the exhortation to abide in 
Him. 

"And now little children, abide in Him; that, 
when He shall appear, we may have confidence, 
and not be ashamed before Him at His Com- 
ing." 

Nothing could be more shameful than to pro- 
fess His name, stand for the faith and then be 
filled with doubt, with uncertainty; now true to 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 125 

"Him, now false, now exalting His name, now 
allowing it to trail in the dust; shouting halle- 
lujahs and full of coronation songs, then falling 
away, holding empty hands as we walk with 
stumbling feet and making ourselves stumbling- 
blocks to others. 

That is shameful here, and should the Lord 
come while we are in that state, we would be 
put to shame when we should be gathered up and 
called to stand at the judgment seat. 

And this is not a far off contingency is it? 

No, says the apostle. He is coming. He 
might come any time. That is his meaning. 
Arouse then, take your place as a Christian and 
abide, be no more like the waves of the sea driven 
and tossed. 

No exhortation could be more practical or 
more insistent; and it is an exhortation which 
grows out of the apostle's belief that the Lord is 
Coming, and may come while we live. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the exhortation not to judge one 
another. 



126 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

"Therefore judge nothing before the time, un- 
til the Lord Come/' 

Should the Lord come tonight the judgment 
seat would be immediately set up. As Chris- 
tians we should have to stand there and answer, 
not for our lives, but for our work as Christians. 
It is sorely out of place for those who will have 
to answer to a common master to judge those 
who will have to answer to that master also. 
It is not worth while to be engaged in judging 
one another now. All things will be brought 
out and the truth declared. "The hidden 
things" of darkness will be declared. Every one 
shall get the praise that is his due. There will 
be a perfect adjustment. The highest plane of 
judgment now is to judge ourselves. If we judge 
ourselves we shall not have much leisure to 
judge others. When we stand at the judgment 
seat of Christ we shall find little occasion to 
plead against others. It will take all our time to 
plead in our own behalf. 

It is written, each one of us shall "give an ac- 
count of himself to God ;" and this God shall be 
our Lord Jesus Christ- 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 27 

By the SECOND Coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ then the apostle urges us not to judge one 
another. 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is bound up with the exhortation to pastoral 
fidelity. 

What the Church needs today, what the 
Christian in the Church needs above all other 
things, is to be spiritually fed. The new spirit- 
ual nature cannot feed on the things which 
pertain to the flesh. Sheep cannot feed on that 
which is satisfactory to swine. To offer to spir- 
itual men and women the food that fills the 
worldling would be to offer a stone for bread, a 
scorpion for a fish. The spiritual nature can be 
sustained only by the Word of God. It is to be 
nourished up in '^the words of faith and good 
doctrine." A growing Christian must feed on 
the ^^milk" of the Word, and the ^'strong meat" 
of doctrine. He must be able to say with the 
prophet, '^Thy words were found, and I did eat 
them; and thy word was unto me the joy and 
rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy 
name, O Lord God of hosts," 



128 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Christians are not being fed today. They are 
not being fed because they are not taught; and 
only by teaching can the spiritual mind be fed 
and sustained. The weakness of the Church is 
the multitude of preachers. It is full of preach- 
ers, but not teachers. The people get sermons, 
essays and certain lines of homilies. They need 
exposition, an expose of Scripture. The Scrip- 
ture opened and exposed to their gaze. They 
need m.ore than that. They need the teacher 
who will '^rightly divide the word of truth." 

Eating of food for proper assimilation needs 
right division of food. You cannot give the 
same diet to all. There are certain classes of 
food which belong to certain classes of persons. 
Just so, there are certain classes of persons indi- 
cated by Scripture and certain classes of food 
for those persons. The Word of God divides 
all mankind into "Jew, Gentile and the Church 
of God." There are some things in the book 
which belong exclusively to the Jew, some to 
the Gentile, and some to the Church. You can- 
not give the food which belongs to the Jew to 
the Christian. The promises made to the Church 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 129 

do not belong to the Jew. The teacher, the true 
teacher, must give to each the food that belongs 
to each and in due season ; the men who have 
been called to shepherd a church, to deal with 
an assembly of Christ as with a flock of hungry 
sheep, are exhorted to feed such a flock; and 
they are exhorted to do so faithfully in view 
of the fact that when our Lord Jesus Christ 
Himself shall come as the great, the chief, shep- 
herd of the flock He will reward all such faith- 
ful teachers (not preachers), all such faithful 
teachers with an amaranthine, that is to say, a 
fadeless, crown; as it is written: 

^Teed the flock of God which is among you 
... and when the chief shepherd (pastor) 
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory 
that fadeth not away." 

Thus it is manifest that pastors are exhorted 
to be faithful teachers of the flocks, and are so 
exhorted by the thought of the SECOND Coming 
of our Lord. 

The Second Coming of Christ is hound up 
with the exhortation to faithfulness in preach- 
ing. 



I30 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

It is true the minister of Christ is to preach. 
He is to proclaim, but always his proclamation 
must be based on doctrines. He is to exhort, he 
is to rebuke, he is to reprove; but, always he is 
to do this with unfailing note of doctrine. 

The apostle warns that the time would come 
when the Church would not endure sound doc- 
trines. The time would come when with itching 
ears the Church would seek teachers who should 
respond to their demands, teachers who should 
give them the fables and the fictions of human 
imagination and turn them away from the truth. 

That time is on us now both in the pulpit and 
the pew. The people in the pew, as a rule, do 
not want doctrine. They do not want sound doc- 
trine. They do not want the old faith once for 
all delivered. They are willing to listen to 
the modification of God's Word and the break- 
ing down of the old standards. There are men 
in the pulpits who are responding to the de- 
mand. They reject the doctrine of fiat creation, 
the fall of man, the virgin birth, the atonement 
by blood, the bodily resurrection of Christ, His 
Second Coming, They set aside the idea of an 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST ^31 

inerrant, infallible Bible fully and entirely in- 
spired of God, and set up a Christ between 
Bethlehem and Calvary; a Christ of exclusive 
humanity, or exclusively of humanity; and set 
Him up not as a redeemer and regenerator of 
men, but as an example to draw out of men the 
sonship with God claimed to be already inher- 
ing in them. They preach, not redemption by 
blood, but salvation by character. 

There never was a time when the Christian 
minister needed more to be faithful than now, 
needed more to have the wisdom as well as the 
knowledge of God, to be led by the Divine 
Spirit; and never more did he need to speak 
the whole counsel of God, hew to the line and 
fear not. 

The apostle appeals to the Christian minister 
in this hour to be faithful. In proportion as the 
Church refuses doctrine, let him give it. In 
proportion as it seeks darkness let him pour on 
the light of truth; and the apostle appeals to 
this faithfulness by appealing to, and exhorting 
by, the SECOND Coming of the Lord. 



132 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Hear what he says. According to the literal 
rendering of the passage he says: 

''I charge thee therefore before God, and the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick 
and the dead at his appearing (and by his ap- 
pearing) and his kingdom; 

Preach the Word : be instant in season, out of 
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long 
suffering and doctrine." 

The SECOND Coming of Christ is the basis on 
which the apostle bids the Christian minister to 
preach, and so preach that he may sustain the 
sound doctrine committed to his charge. 

The Second Corning of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is hound up with the exhortation to comfort and 
console those who mourn their Christian dead. 

It is true, blessedly true, that should we die, 
we as Christians, ^^depart to be with Christ;" 
and it is a state advanced upon this, better and 
"far better." It is true, consolingly true, that 
should we die we shall be ''absent from our home 
in this body and present at our home with the 
Lord;" and just as surely as Saul recognized 
Samuel in his disembodied state, and Abraham 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 133 

recognized the rich man though both had died 
and their bodies been buried, just that sure is it, 
should the Lord bid us to ascend to Heaven 
through death before He comes, that we shall 
see and know each other; yet the apostle does 
not seek to comfort the sorrowing concerning 
the dead in Christ by any such appeal as that. 
On the contrary, he ofifers what to him is a 
quicker^ more imminent com.fort, the comfort 
that the Lord Himself is coming from heaven; 
and just as he called Lazarus from the grave and 
gave him to the weeping sisters and they rejoiced 
in a reunion that triumphed over death and the 
grave; so will He descend, it may be any 
moment, into the upper air, and calling the dead 
from their graves and transfiguring the living, 
lift them up as in clouds that are chariots to meet 
Him and one another, and forevermore be with 
Him and with one another. 

Hear how the inspired apostle comforts 
Christians who sorrow above their Christian 
dead: 

^'I would not have you to be ignorant, breth- 



134 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

ren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye 
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 

"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose 
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus 
(whom Jesus has put to sleep) will God bring 
with him. 

"For this we say unto you by the word of the 
Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto 
the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent (go 
before) them which are asleep. 

"For the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
angel and the trump of God: and the dead in 
Christ shall rise first: 

"Then we which are alive and remain, shall 
be caught up together with them in clouds, to 
meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord 

"Wherefore comfort one another with these 
words!' 

Thus have I demonstrated and proved what 
I have affirmed; that the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ is bound up with every funda- 
mental doctrine, every sublime promise, every 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 135 

radiant hope, every practical exhortation, and 
affords the basis of apostolic appeal in behalf of 
the highest type of every day Christian living 
and devotion. 

Repudiate the Second Coming and you take 
away the resurrection of the dead in Christ, the 
hoped for transfiguration of the living, the mani- 
fested sonship with God and likeness to Christ, 
the assurance of reward, the promised satisfac- 
tion of the soul, the victory over Satan and the 
deliverance of this earth from the bondage of 
corruption. 

Take out the Second Coming and you take out 
of the New Testament the appeal to meet to- 
gether on the Lord's Day, the appeal to meet 
around the Lord's Table and break bread, the 
appeal to love God, to love one another, to pa- 
tience, to a holy life, to watchfulness, to Chris- 
tian activity, to moderation, to abiding in Christ, 
the warning against judging one another as 
Christians, the appeal to steadfastness, to pas- 
toral fidelity, to faithfulness in preaching, and 
the inspired words of comfort with which we 



136 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

are to comfort one another above the Christian 
dead. 

The doctrine of the Second Coming unimpor- 
tant! 

Unim.portant, when it is inwrought with doc- 
trines without w^hich Christianity would be as a 
half-naked and pitiable beggar asking for alms, 
even the indifferent consideration of a careless 
world. 

The doctrine of the Second Coming not prac- 
tical! 

Not practical, when it is the very basis on 
which, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost the 
apostles appeal to all that can make Christianity 
a living, a fruitful and helpful profession among 
the sons of men. 

Certainly, those who repudiate the Second 
Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ are excuse- 
lessly ignorant of the Word of God, w^ilfully 
prejudiced, or brutally unbelieving and iniidelic. 
Those who are ignorant of the Word have no 
right to speak about it, those who are prejudiced 
are unqualified, and those who are infidelic 
ought to have no place in the Church of Christ. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 137 

It must be evident, and in the very nature of 
the case, that the promises and appeals coinci- 
dent with the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ require there should be, and so demon- 
strate there is, a stage or part of the coming in 
relation to the Church which makes it imminent. 

What folly, what utter w^aste of words, what 
altogether meaninglessness, not to say stupidity, 
in exhorting me, a living man, to be patient unto 
the Coming of the Lord, if the Lord cannot 
come for, at least, a thousand years, and on the 
theory the world is to be converted by the Gos- 
pel, for several thousand years. What an insult 
to intelligence, what a shock to faith, what an 
appeal to unbelief in the whole thing to add, 
''The coming of- the Lord drawxth nigh;" and 
then to give it still greater emphasis, to say, "The 
Judge standeth before the door." Tell me the 
Lord's Coming is so nigh, that already He is 
on the eve of summoning me with the Church to 
Kis judgment seat; and then for me to discover 
that by no possibility could He come while I am 
alive! What would that be but a striking, an in- 



13B THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

disputable proof that the Scriptures contradict 
themselves, and are wholly unreliable? 

If the Lord will not come, and cannot come 
while I am alive, how utterly grotesque, worse 
even than that, is the prayer in which the apos- 
tle prays my whole spirit, soul and body shall 
be preserved blameless unto the Coming of the 
Lord. 

If it is not possible for me to live till the Lord 
comes, of what downright deception or childish 
babbling is the apostle guilty when he writes 
such a sentence as this : 

'We who are alive and remain unto the com- 
ing of the Lord." 

And again: 

"We shall not all sleep (that is, die), but we 
shall all be changed;" not die, but live till the 
Lord comes and transfigures us into His own 
likeness. 

If the Lord may not come any moment for 
the Church, of what trifling verbiage is the 
apostle guilty when he commends the Thessa- 
lonians because they have turned to God from 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 39 

idols to serve the living and the true God and — 
to wait for His Son from heaven? 

If the Lord may not come any moment, of 
w^hat possible value can His own most solemn 
exhortation be? 

This solemn and intense exhortation: 

^^ Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour 
your Lord doth come." 

If these exhortations, if the v^hole trend of 
these appeals, do not mean imminency ; if they 
do not mean the Lord may come vs^hile we are 
alive, in some unexpected hour or moment, and, 
therefore, so far as our knowledge is concerned, 
any moment, then the New Testament, as an in- 
strument for the transmission of intelligent 
thought must be set aside. 

But why discuss it! The language is clear, 
plain, unmistakable. You must accept it, or re- 
ject the book. You must accept the words of the 
Lord as He speaks them or reject Him as one 
who does not speak the truth. The words are so 
simple, so direct, without the slightest sinuosity 
or double turning, that the puzzling word "in- 
terpretation" cannot come in to misplace or at- 



HO THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

tempt to define them. There they are. He says 
I am coming. Be on the lookout for me, watch 
for me. He meant that or He did not. He told 
the actual truth, or He did not. There is no 
middle ground. You must take them or reject 
them. The apostles say, 'Wait." They meant it 
just as the Lord meant it. They were as honest 
as He was; or, both v/ere dishonest. 

He says the hour is unknown. The moment 
is equally unknown. There is only one thing 
certain about it. He will come, not only when 
the world is not thinking about it, but when the 
Church is not thinking about it; and it is dead 
certain the Church is not thinking about it to- 
day. 

"Be ye also ready." 

He said so. 

He who is the Son of God, the truth and no 
lie, He said it. 

He said it for the Church that should be after 
He should ascend to heaven. 

He said it for the Church in any and every 
hour after He had ascended to heaven, 

"Be ye also ready." 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 141 

It would be amazing foolery to attempt to ap- 
ply it to any generation but a present generation. 

^'Be j^- also ready." 

It means we are always on the threshold of 
His Coming. 

It is impossible to mean anything else. 

It does mean that. 

It means the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is imminent. 

Since the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is 
imminent, it ought to be an incentive and a hope. 

It should be an incentive to the highest Chris- 
tian living. 

If the Lord should come tomorrow you would 
not wish Him to find you doing what a Christian 
ought not to do ; nor, would you like Him to find 
you where a Christian ought not to be. 

You surely would wish to meet Him with 
your accounts all straight, your responsibilities 
discharged and your life without fault. You 
would not wish to be put to shame at His Com- 
ing. 

Because He is Coming, and because our place 
in the kingdom will depend upon the character 



142 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

we are living as Christians; then the ''any 
moment" Coming of the Lord should be an in- 
centive to the noblest type of Christian living, 
Christian service and devotion. 

Since the Coming of Christ means all for 
which our hearts are yearning; since it means 
the fulfilment of our redemption, the exaltation 
of the Church into the place of rulership and 
power, and the transformation of the world into 
an arena for God, for righteousness and peace, 
it is as it has been divinely called: 

'The Blessed Hope." 

It is to be held, not merely as a doctrine, but 
as a hope; and we are told that he that hath it 
as a hope upon the Lord will purify himself even 
as He is pure. 

If the Lord is Coming: yea, if I really wish 
Him to come, then will I truly seek, and invol- 
untarily, each passing moment to be in full ac- 
cord with Him. 

With the apostle, therefore, I beseech you 
brethren, by the Coming of the Lord that ye be 
not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, 
"the hope of glory;" that ye let no time be 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST ^43 

wasted; that ye be always ready ; for, in an hour 
when ye think not He may come. Already the 
air is blowing as from suddenly opened gates in 
heaven; already the sensitive earth is shivering 
as though His presence were drawing nigh, in- 
deed. If He should come this night He would 
bid you stand before Him, and at once, without 
delay, give an account for the deeds done in the 
body, for the life you have professed to live in 
His name. 

Be ready, Christian, for you, and not another, 
must give an account of yourself to Him, He 
who is none other than our great God and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. It is true He will bring 
to light every hidden thing of darkness uncon- 
fessed; but it is, also, blessedly true that every 
Christian shall have praise of Him for the 
slightest thing done in His name; neither the 
cup of cold water given nor the word fitly spoken 
will be forgot. 

Men out of Christ! 

You are not safe a moment out of Christ. 

Get into Christ. 

He is your only shelter. 



144 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

I say get into Christ; and you can get into 
Him. 

You can get into Him by letting Him get into 
you. 

He will enter into you and possess you if you 
will but throw your soul wide open by faith 
in Him. 

The exercise of that faith should be clear, 
simple, direct and objective. 

Claim Him on that cross as the sacrifice for 
sin provided by God Himself. Claim Him as 
your personal substitute. Offer Him as such to 
God, and God the Father will accept Him on 
your behalf. In a moment you shall be deliv- 
ered from the penalty of sin. You will be 
legally justified. You will be safe, as safe as 
the children of Israel under the sprinkled blood 
of the Passover night in Egypt. The moment 
you believe Christ becomes your Passover. His 
blood meets your case and answers all demands 
of divine righteousness. The Risen Christ will 
impart His perfect life; and thus, redeemed, 
justified, regenerated, you shall belong to Him; 
and were He to come,, even now, this minute, 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 45 

you, the sincere believer, would be in Him, He 
would be in you; and by grace, through faith 
you would be forever saved and glorified. 

Now is the accepted time. Now is yours and 
not tomorrow. 

Tomorrow may not be grace. Tomorrow may 
be judgment. 

Delay not, lose no time, fly to the shelter of 
the blood. 



Ill 

IS THE COMING OF CHRIST BEFORE OR 
AFTER THE MILLENNIUM? 



Is the Coming of Christ 
Before or After the Millennium ? 




"ND Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, 
prophesied of these, saying. The Lord 
Cometh with ten thousands of his saints." 
(Jude 14.) 

'^And I saw an angel come down from heaven, 
having the key of the bottomless pit and a great 
chain in his hand. 

"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old ser- 
pent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound 
him a thousand years, 

"And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut 
him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should 
deceive the nations no more, till the thousand 
years should be fulfilled : and after that he must 
be loosed a little season. * * * 

"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the 
first resurrection : on such the second death hath 
no power, but they shall be priests of God and 
of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand 
years." (Revelation 20: 1-6.) 



150 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

The ^^thousand years'' is the term which in 
Scripture represents that golden era fortetold by 
prophet, priest and king, when our Lord Jesus 
Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords shall 
set up His kingdom of righteousness and peace 
and reign and rule in undisturbed authority 
among the sons of men. 

The thousand years of Scripture are com- 
monly known by the word, "millennium." This 
is a Latin word compounded of mille, a thou- 
sand, and annus, a year. 

The doctrine of a millennium is believed in 
and accepted more or less by all Christians. 

All Christians do not agree as to the manner 
in which it is to be introduced. 

There are those who believe and teach that as 
the age goes on the Gospel will be less and less 
successful, the Church instead of overcoming the 
world will be overcome by the world, sin, in- 
iquity, lawlessness and war will increase. At an 
undetermined moment the Lord will suddenly 
come into the upper air, raise the dead in Christ, 
transfigure the living and genuine Christians 
and take them to Himself to Heaven; the world, 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 5 1 

for a season will be given over to Satanic power; 
iniquity will head itself up in monstrous and 
blasphemous forms; then the Lord with His 
previously caught-up saints will descend in maj- 
esty and might, execute judgment against all un- 
righteousness, cleanse the earth, and having 
bound Satan and rendered him helpless for a 
thousand years bring in the kingdom of life and 
peace. 

Because those who teach this believe the Lord 
must come before the millennium, that it must 
precede it, they are called! 

Pre-Millennialisfs. 

Another class of persons believe and teach that 
the Gospel will win its widening way, dominate 
society and government, the spirit of Christ will 
pervade all hearts, all will believe in the Father- 
hood of God and the brotherhood of man, envy, 
jealousy and hatred will be banished, war shall 
cease, swords will be beaten into plough shares 
and spears into pruning hooks, for a thousand 
years the arts of peace will be cultivated and the 
genius of man revealed. 

At the end of this period of peace and spiritual 



152 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

triumph the Lord will come; there will be a 
general pell-mell resurrection; the righteous 
will be separated from the unrighteous; the 
earth will pass through purifying fires, become 
the abode of the finally righteous and sweep on 
forever to the music of the spheres. 

Because this class of persons believe and teach 
the Lord will not come till after the millennium, 
they are known as : 

Post-Mil lennialists. 

They constitute the majority in the professing 
Church. They furnish the presidents and facul- 
ties of our theological institutions, editors of our 
religious periodicals, fill the pulpits and lead 
and shape our denominational interests. 

They call themselves "orthodox." They look 
upon pre-millennialists as pessimists clad in the 
garb of darkness and despair, giving utterance 
to words and testimony which deny all hope. 
They consider them unsound in doctrine, de- 
pressing in method, a hindrance to the enthusi- 
asm and progress of the Church. They call 
themselves optimists, the people of the sunlit 
message and defenders of a triumphant Gospel. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 1 53 

In the face of all this I afBrm, I shall demon- 
strate and prove, the post-millennial theory of 
the world's conversion before the Coming of the 
Lord to be extra-Biblical, wholly unscriptural, 
without a single foundation in the Word of God, 
confusing in exposition, utterly absurd as exe- 
gesis and contradicted by the facts of history, ob- 
servation and experience. 

The history of the Gospel to this hour and the 
attitude which the post-millennialists hold con- 
cerning the Second Coming carry in themselves 
presumptive evidence that the proposition of a 
world's conversion by the Gospel is entirely 
false. 

Since that hour when the Son of God sent 
forth His disciples to preach the good news of 
His death and resurrection to every creature, 
two thousand years have passed. And to-day 
after the most unexampled display of heroic de- 
votion, of unqualified consecration, the unstinted 
outpouring of life and treasure and the claimed 
presence and power of the Holy Ghost, of the 
sixteen hundred millions of the earth's popula- 
tion, not more than four hundred million, one 



1 54 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

fourth, make an actual profession of the name of 
Christ. And of that number not more than a 
third, if so many as that, give evidence of the in- 
dwelling life of Christ. In other words, there 
are more heathen, more idolaters, more unbe- 
lievers, infidels and mere professors of religion 
than when Christianity began. 

At the same rate of progress it will take six 
thousand years before the whole world makes a 
confession of Christ; and then in the same 
diminishing ratio spiritually not more than one- 
ninth would be actual Christians. 

But admitting for arguments' sake that to- 
morrow at twelve o'clock noon, every, man 
woman and child will be genuinely converted, 
even then, according to the post-millennial theory 
a thousand years will have to elapse before the 
Lord can come. It is clear enough long before 
that time every man, woman and child now liv- 
ing would be dead, turned to dust, and forgotten ; 
but you know and I know the world will not be 
converted by to-morrow, nor many to-morrows; 
and that at this present rate of Gospel advance, 
plus the thousand years or millennium, it will be 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 155 

seven thousand years before we can legitimately 
hope for the Coming of the Lord. 

What interest can you have in that coming? 
What interest can I have in it? Why should I 
dig and delve and seek to find the heart of every 
passage which speaks of that coming? There is 
no reason for me to have any interest. There is 
every reason to lose all interest, to be wholly in- 
different to it. 

And this is just the attitude of the post-millen- 
nialist to the Second Coming of our Lord. 

He has no interest in it. He never talks of it. 
It is never in his heart or mind. If he is a 
preacher he never preaches it; and, in truth, his 
ignorance of what the Bible really says concern- 
ing it; what it plainly and continuously teaches 
about it is, as a rule, as deeply midnight as the 
palpable darkness of Egypt. 

But — I have shown you in previous sermons 
that the record of the Second Coming is in- 
wrought with the whole constitution of the Bible 
from Genesis to Revelation ; that it is inwrought 
with and woven into its very fibre and essence; 
that it is more often spoken of than any other 



156 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

event or doctrine in the Bible; that while the 
word "atonement" occurs but once in the New 
Testament and should not be at all translated 
"atonement," but, "reconciliation" (the conse- 
quence of atonement) the mention of the Second 
Coming occurs once in every twenty verses. I 
also showed you that not only is the statement 
of the Second Coming woven into every fila- 
ment of the Bible, but is bound up with every 
fundamental doctrine, every sublime promise, 
every radiant hope and every practical exhorta- 
tion ; and that it affords the basis upon which the 
apostles make their appeal for the highest type 
of daily and dutiful Christian living. Not only 
this, but as I hope to show later, the New Testa- 
ment exhorts us as Christians to take the attitude 
of waiting for the Lord, looking for the Lord. 
We are exhorted to watch, be ready, and are 
warned that He will come suddenly like a thief 
and in an hour when we think not. The Apostle 
Paul writing to the Church at Thessalonica com- 
mends them, not c«ily because they had turned to 
God from idols to serve the living and true God, 
but to wait for His Son from Heaven. I have 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 157 

gone into and examined all the words in the New 
Testament in respect to His Coming and if it 
do not mean ^^imminency/' if it do not mean 
that we are always to live as though it were pos- 
sible in our day, or at ^^any moment," then lan- 
guage has no certain meaning and words are sim- 
ply instruments to magnify darkness and dimin- 
ish the light. 

Now since the indifference, the absolute in- 
difference of the post-millennial attitude to the 
Coming of Christ is a straightforward, unquali- 
fied contradiction of the attitude demanded by 
the Scripture; as this attitude is produced by 
the post-millennial proposition that the world 
must be converted before the millennium, then 
this proposition carries with it the presumptive 
evidence of its own fallacy, of its utter untruth. 

But the evidence is not only presumptive, it 
is direct. 

The direct evidence is given by our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

He gives this evidence in a series of parables 
recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, 
the parables of the Sower, the Wheat and the 



158 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Tares, the Mustard Tree, a woman hiding 
Leaven in the Meal, and the Drag-net Cast into 
the sea. 

The sower cast his seed, some fell upon the 
wayside and the birds picked them up. Some 
fell upon a rock and immediately sprung up, but 
since there was not sufficient earth to take root, 
they withered and fell away. Others fell among 
thorns and were choked. The rest fell upon 
good ground and brought forth fruit in different 
degree. 

Two things are clear enough in this parable. 

First, only a portion of the whole ground 
sowed over received the seed. 

Second, there were three hindrances to the re- 
ception of it: 

The birds which picked it up. 

The rocky ground which resisted it. 

The thorny ground which choked it. 

Our Lord explains the parable. 

The sower is any one who preaches the Word 
of God. 

The seed is the Word of God. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 159 

The four kinds of ground represent four kinds 
of hearers: 

The wayside hearer. 

That is, the indifferent hearer. He over whose 
heart as a beaten pathway the providences of 
God and the Gospel of His love pass on and 
leave no impression. 

The rocky ground hearer. 

That is, the emotional hearer who responds 
with enthusiasm, but in whose soul the truth 
finds no root; one who is a professor, but not a 
possessor. 

The thorny ground hearer. 

That is, the worldling who is occupied with 
his business responsibilities, the claims of the 
world and the pursuit of riches. 

The birds represent the work of the DeviL 

The rocky ground represents the flesh. 

The thorny ground the world. 

Two things there are to be learned in the ap- 
plication of the parable: 

First, during the absence of our Lord the Gos- 
pel would have, not a universal, but fractional 
reception. 



160 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Is it necessary to recall to you what has already 
been said, that after two thousand years of Gos- 
pel preaching, out of the world's population only 
a fourth part have made any pretence to re- 
ceive it? 

Seco7idj during the absence of our Lord there 
would be a trinity of persistent, unchanging op- 
position to the Gospel, the world, the flesh, and 
the Devil. 

It requires little demonstration to show that 
this opposition has continued all along the ages 
and was never more manifested than now. 

The world offers its cups, its sparkling wine, 
its dance, its places of amusement, its pleasures 
of sin, the crown of ambition, the glitter of gold 
and silver, the promise of wealth, of ease and 
comfort. It stretches out its arms soft and ca- 
ressing, saying with siren voice, ^^Come and en- 
joy me." The very sound of its laughter and 
music drowns the notes of the Gospel. 

The flesh opposes the Gospel often as much by 
its acceptance as its rejection ; for, it makes pro- 
fessors and not possessors. The flesh, like the 
rock, is impervious to the Gospel; it is the ene- 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 161 

my of the Gospel because it is the enemy of the 
spirit. 

The Devil is that unseen but all-pervading 
genius who combines the world and the flesh and 
leads them into continuous assault against all 
who would turn to God. 

There is no hint or suggestion in this parable 
of a world converted and surrendered to Christ 
during His absence. 

A householder, the Lord tells us in the next 
parable, sows good seed in his field. While his 
servants slept an enemy came and sowed tares 
among the wheat and went his way. When the 
wheat appeared the tares appeared also. The 
servant wished to go out and root them up. The 
householder forbade them because in rooting up 
the tares they might root up the wheat. Both 
must grow together till the harvest. Then he 
would send out the reapers to bind the tares in 
bundles to be burned, but the wheat should be 
gathered into the barn. 

Two things are plainly set forth here. 

First, the wheat and the tares grow side by side 
till the harvest. 



162 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Second, at the harvest the field instead of be- 
ing all wheat is seen to be a mixed field of wheat 
and tares. 

The disciples did not understand the parable. 

When the Lord entered the house the disciples 
came to Him and asked Him to explain it. 

He explained it to them. 

The field, He said, is the world. The good 
seed the children of the kingdom, the tares the 
children of the Devil. The enemy who sowed 
them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the 
age. The reapers are the angels. At the end of 
this age the Lord will send forth His angels 
(they will both precede and be with Him at His 
Coming) and they shall gather out of His king- 
dom all things that offend ; then shall the right- 
eous shine forth and the reign of righteousness 
begin. 

Two things are taught in the application : 

First, side by side with the Church of Christ 
in the world there would spring up as the work 
of the Devil, counterfeit systems of Christianity. 

These systems are here. 

The Roman Catholic Church, a church of in- 
vented human doctrine, an apostate church, a 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 163 

monstrous compound of Judaism, Paganism, 
and Christianity. 

The Greek Church, full of image worship, 
idolatry and multiplied popery. 

The Universalist Church, assuring salvation 
to all both good and bad and making the Gospel 
and the preaching of it unnecessary. 

The Unitarian Church, denying the deity of 
the Son of God and the penal sacrifice of the 
cross. 

The Christian Science Church, which says 
the blood of Christ was of no more avail when 
shed on the cross than when flowing through 
His veins in daily life, denies the Trinity and the 
personality of God, teaches Jesus and Christ to 
have been entirely distinct, Christ the principle 
of truth, Jesus simply an ^4dea conceived" by 
the Virgin Mary, and as a material appearance, 
non-existent to-day. 

Emmanuel ism, which locates the powers of 
salvation in the subconscious mind instead of 
interpenetrating it with the mind of Christ. 

New thought, and a whole crowd of cults and 
systems which borrow the name of Christ, pa- 
rade as Christianity and deny both. 



164 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Second, at the end of the age when the Lord 
comes He will find, not a world in which all 
are children of God, but a world divided be- 
tween children of God and children of the 
Devil. A mixed world of good and evil. 

Is there any suggestion, any ground here upon 
which a teacher loyal to the truth of Christ can 
stand and preach the conversion of the world by 
the Gospel? 

The Lord continues His discourse by speaking 
of a grain of mustard seed cast into the ground. 
It springs up, becomes a great tree and spreads 
forth its branches. In proportion as it expands, 
it roots itself deeper in the earth. It becomes a 
shelter and a dwelling place for birds. 
Two things are declared: 
First, the tree becomes a shelter for birds. 
Second, it is deeply rooted in the earth. 
The mustard tree represents the beginning 
and expansion of the professing Church. 

It began with a hundred and twenty members. 
It has grown and multiplied until to-day its 
branches are to be found beneath every sky, in 
every land. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 16^ 

The birds according to the Son of God Him- 
self (as set forth in the parable of the sower, 
for the word '^fowls'' there, is the same word, 
"birds," here) are symbols of Satan and his 
agents. 

Two things are thus definitely taught by the 
parable: 

. First, During our Lord's absence the pro- 
fessing Church would afford a shelter, a dwell- 
ing place for Satan as well as for Christ. 

Startling as the statement may seem you have 
only to read Church history to find it confirmed. 

When you read of the wickedness committed 
in its name ; when you read of racks and stake 
and torture set up and wrought by its authority; 
when you hear the tramp of contending factions 
and see the very altars and shrines in its build- 
ings drenched with fratricidal blood ; when you 
listen to the false doctrines which from time to 
time have been promulgated by it; when you 
know the paganism of the Romish Church, the 
idolatry of the Greek Church, and the infidelity, 
the worldliness and unspirituality of Protestant- 
ism, you may well believe the professing Church 



166 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

has been a dwelling place for evil as well as 
good, a habitation for Satan as well as Christ. 

Second, In proportion as the Church has ex- 
panded^ it has rooted itself in and identified it- 
self with the world and the life that now is. 
More and more every day the Church is moving 
down from the plane of the supernatural to the 
purely natural and ethical; more and more it. is 
transforming itself into a society for competitive 
morality; more and more becoming identified 
with civilization, becoming one of its coincident 
factors; more and more in turning away from 
spirituality, from regeneration and the things 
that are eternal is it taken up with the endeavor 
to make this world a better place for the natural 
man to live in, and to make the natural man a 
better man to live in it. 

The professing Church repudiates the whole 
law and principle of unfoldment in wheat. 

Wheat as it ripens at the top loosens at the 
root, lets go its hold on the earth. This is par- 
ticularly so with corn. 

In proportion as the spiritual life develops in 
a believer he lets go his grasp on earth and 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 167 

earthly things ripening and maturing heaven- 
ward. 

The professing Church fails here utterly. Its 
whole course is a repudiation of those symbols. 
Every day it is laying aside its heavenly char- 
acteristics and becoming more and more earthly; 
more and more a world Church, a church of the 
world, included in and a part of that system of 
man. 

Surely, this is not a Church to lead men out 
of the world ; nor is it a Church to bring a spir- 
itually-conquered world to the feet of a tri- 
umphant Christ. 

In the next parable a woman is seen hiding 
leaven in three measures of meal till the whole 
lump is leavened. 

The post-millennialist seizes upon this para- 
ble with uncommon avidity, declaring the ope- 
ration of the leaven hidden in the meal till the 
lump is wholly pervaded by it is a clear and 
conclusive illustration of the way in which the 
Gospel is to pervade and possess the world. 

But some things about this parable ought to 
be clear, indeed! 



168 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

You will note that the woman takes three 
:neasiires of meal. Three measures/ but three 
measures out of any quantity is not the whole. 
If I take three measures of apples out of a full 
barrel I certainly am not taking all the apples. 
I cannot be said to have taken the whole. If I 
take three measures of meal out of a barrel of 
meal I am not taking all the meal in the barrel. 

Three measures of any thing is not the whole 
of that thing. 

And as the Gospel is to be preached, not to a 
measured number, but to the whole world, then 
the three measures of meal cannot possibly set 
forth the whole world ; and, therefore, the prop- 
osition that the leaven entirely pervading it, 
leavening it, is the Gospel filling the world and 
converting it breaks down of its own weight. 

But, there is not the slightest need of a mo- 
ment's darkness, nor a moment's waste of time 
concerning the identity of the '4ump" of meal 
so leavened. 

In the first epistle to the Corinthians, the fifth 
chapter, the apostle tells us the '^lump" (and the 
three measures of meal became a lump) is a 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 169 

symbol of the professing Church. The Church 
is exhorted to purge out the old leaven that it 
may be a ''new lump." 

In hiding leaven in the lump of meal the 
woman is symbolically hiding whatever it sym- 
bolizes not in the world, but in the professing 
Church. 

Now it is a startling fact that the professing 
Church of Christ in the world to-day is divided 
into three great measures: — 

The Roman Catholic Church, 

The Greek Church. 

The Protestant Church. 

As the Gospel is to be preached to the world 
and not to the Church; and since the lump or 
three measures set forth the Church and not the 
world, then the leaven hidden in the meal cannot 
he the Gospel pervading the world. 

But, mark you well ! the leaven is to be hidden. 

This is not the method in which the Gospel is 
to be introduced into the world. 

Our Lord said what He told the disciples in 
darkness must be spoken in the light; what they 
heard in the ear must be preached upon the 
housetops. 



170 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

The very word, ^^Gospel," signifies, "glad ti- 
dings," and '^tidings" are things, not to be hid- 
den but told abroad. The very symbol of the 
Gospel, that is to say, a trumpet, denies that it is 
at any time or in any place to be hidden. There 
is nothing secret about the Gospel, like the trum- 
pet, its sound is to be heard by all ears. 

Leaven may be hidden, but the Gospel, in the 
very nature of the case, cannot be hidden. 

But let us consider what leaven actually is. 

It is a sour, corrupt, putrid and putrefying 
thing. 

Is it possible that that which is wholly cor- 
rupt and corrupting shall be the chosen symbol 
of that which is wholly incorruptible, pure, 
good, and true? 

But, look you ! When the Passover was cele- 
brated leaven must be entirely removed from the 
house. 

To allow the leaven to remain was to subject 
the individual to the judgment of God. Every 
Israelite who permitted it was excommunicated. 

The Passover is the symbol or type of the 
Cross of Christ, His death and the redemption 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 171 

achieved by His blood. It is the type of that 
which is the very heart of the Gospel. 

If leaven be the symbol of the Gospel why 
should it be cast out of the house under an 
anathema of threatened judgment and not per- 
mitted to remain as a constituent part of the 
Passover? 

To ask the question is to answer it. 

Its repudiation during the celebration of that 
which sets forth the sacrifice of the Son of God 
is a demonstration that leaven is not and in the 
nature of the case cannot be the symbol of the 
Gospel. 

The Son of God, the very headquarters of 
truth leaves us in no possible doubt as to the 
meaning and application of leaven. 

He tells us it is the symbol of false and corrupt 
doctrine. 
He speaks of the leaven of the Pharisees and 
Sadducees. 

The Pharisees stood for ritualism and reli- 
gious hypocrisy. 

The Sadducees stood for annihilation. They 



172 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

denied both angel and spirit. They repudiated 
the resurrection of the body. 

Thus leaven is a symbol of ritualism, religious 
hypocrisy, annihilation and the denial of the 
resurrection. 

The Apostle Paul tells us that it symbolizes 
vain glory, malice, legalism, the works of the 
flesh, the old nature of enmity with God. 

Ritualism, 

Religious hypocrisy. 

Annihilation, 

Denial of the Resurrection 

Vain-glory, 

Malice, 

Legalism, 

The works of the flesh. 

The Flesh. 
What an arraignment it is against any such 
proposition that leaven signifies or in any fashion 
whatever symbolizes the Gospel. 

It is beyond all question the Scriptural dec- 
laration that leaven is false and corrupt doctrine, 
and is here set forth as false and corrupt doc- 
trine introduced into the Church. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 173 

A woman in Scripture is used either in a dis- 
tinctively and uncompromisingly good or bad 
sense. 

A good woman sets forth the true Church. 

K bad woman the false church. 

The action of this woman (considered symbol- 
ically) is not good. It is bad. She hides false 
doctrine in the Church. She makes this false 
and corrupt doctrine to permeate the whole pro- 
fessing Church. 

This symbolic woman may be seen in the 
book of Revelation. 

There she is presented as Jezebel and the 
woman clothed "in purple and scarlet colour," 
the Scarlet Woman, the Mother of Harlots, 
whose name is Babylon, 

These women are symbols of Rome. 

Rome is the inventor of false and corrupt doc- 
trine. It was Rome that invented such doctrines 
as the Immaculate Conception, Transubstantia- 
tion, the Mass or a perpetually sacrified Christ, 
Purgatory, Papal Indulgences, and Papal in- 
fallibility. It is Rome that exalts the Church 
above the Bible, above the Word of God, and 



174 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

makes the final authority in the human con- 
science to be, not a ^Thus saith the Lord," but 
'^thus says Rome." 

From the beginning the Church began to be 
filled with false doctrine. The apostles clearly 
foretold these evil teachings would be more 
and more manifested as the age should go on. 

So far from the professing Church filling the 
world with truth we are taught by the Son of 
God that it would become the purveyor of false 
and evil doctrines filling the world with theo- 
logical errors. 

Our Lord's final parable is the story of a net 
cast into the sea — a great drag net — which when 
men drew to the shore they found to be full of 
fish, both good and bad. They gathered the good 
into vessels, the bad they cast away. 

This net is the purpose of God as expressed in 
the Gospel, sweeping on through the age and 
like a net gathering into the professing Church 
out of the troubled waters of the world all sorts, 
both good and bad. At the end of the age there 
will be a separation. The good will be taken 
away, the bad cast away. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 175 

The very statement is an unequivocal declara- 
tion that the professing Church would be made 
up of regenerate and unregenerate members; 
that, at least, there would be in the great sea of 
the world those who professing the name of 
Christ should be regenerated, and those who, 
also, professing the name of Christ should be 
unregenerated. 

Just as the field was a mixed field, a world 
divided between Christ and the Devil; so, the 
professing Church would be divided and, in the 
end of the age, those truly Christ's would be 
taken out of the world and made immortal, 
given bodies as vessels of glory and others re- 
jected and left behind. 

In the face of such testimony as this, and with 
an open Bible before him, on what basis does any 
man pretend to teach that the Church through 
the Gospel is to convert the world? 

In another and distinct discourse our Lord 
corroborates what He has said about the divi- 
sion of the professing Church. 

He delivers the parable of ten virgins who 
went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five werQ 



176 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

wise, five were foolish. The foolish took their 
lamp, and took no oil with them. The wise took 
oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the 
bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept. 
At midnight a cry was made that the bridegroom 
was coming. All the virgins arose and trimmed 
their lamps. The foolish found their lamps go- 
ing out and sought to borrow oil from the wise. 
They bade them go and buy for themselves. 
While they went to buy the bridegroom came 
and they that were ready went in with him to the 
marriage and the door was shut. Then came the 
foolish virgins, knocked at the close shut door, 
plead with the bridegroom to open unto them; 
but he refused, answering that he knew them not. 

The virgins represent the assemblies of Christ. 

Paul tells the Corinthian Church (and this is 
the Church of Gospel order ; that is to say, the 
Church which furnishes the occasion for the 
Apostle Paul speaking by the Spirit in his epistle 
to put one thing after another in order according 
to the mind of God) , Paul tells this Church that 
it has been presented to Christ as a chosen virgin. 

At the beginning the Church was told to wait 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 177 

like an affianced virgin for the return of the 
Lord, not as a king, but as the bridegroom. 

At the beginning the Church accepted this ex- 
hortation, separated herself from the world and 
with upward look and heavenly walk waited for 
the Coming of the Lord. 

This was the attitude Paul commended in the 
Thessalonian Church as the model Church of 
the New Testament. 

He said : 

'Te turned to God from idols, to serve the 
living and true God; and to wait for his Son 
from heaven." 

The Lord did not come. The Church lost 
the hope of His return. It fell asleep on the 
bosom of that world to which it at once surren- 
dered itself. 

About seventy years ago the cry rang through 
the Church: 

^'Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out 
to meet Him." 

The cry has been an arousing one. 

Many are preparing to meet Him. 

How will He come? 



178 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Will He come when the sunlight is falling on 
the earth? Will He come at the midnoon of 
Gospel triumph, when all the world is singing 
hosannas and praises to His name? 

Nay! 

He is represented as coming at midnight. 

Midnight is a symbol of spiritual darkness, 
ignorance and indifference. 

He is coming then, not when the world is 
wide awake and filled with the light of His 
glory, but asleep in the black midnight of sin, 
of shame and woeful ignorance of Himself. 

And what will take place when He comes? 

One part of the professing Church, like the 
wise virgins (who with oil in their vessels rep- 
resent Christians with the Holy Ghost in their 
bodies) will be taken to Heaven and to the 
marriage of the Lamb. 

The other part like the foolish virgins (who 
represent mere profession in the shining of the 
lamp, but have no oil, no Holy Spirit in their 
bodies) those who are unregenerate, will be left 
behind, shut out to judgment, to tribulation and 
to woe. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 179 

The official voice of the Son of God will de- 
clare : 

''Verily I say unto you, I know you not." 

What think you of that? A church, a pro- 
fessing Church, one-half saved, the other half 
unsaved? 

Where, I ask you, is there any indication of a 
united Church marching on with the sound of a 
triumphant Gospel to the purple and the gold of 
immediate millennial days? 

Our Lord now tells the story of a woman who 
went to a judge, a lawyer, to ask him to take up 
her case and deliver her from the adversary. 

The judge was unjust and refused at first to 
listen to her cry. But she continued, persistently 
demanding deliverance. He became wearied 
with her importunity. He answered her prayer. 
He vindicated her cause. He delivered her. 

The Lord teaches that this woman is Israel 
and here, particularly, the Jew. 

The Lord is the true and the just judge. 

By this parable He declares He will hear the 
cry of His people, just as of old He heard the 



180 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

appeal for help from among the brick kilns of 
Egypt. 

In that near-coming hour when their adver- 
sary the anti-Christ shall rise to persecute them 
His ear will be open to the cry of the "elect rem- 
nant." He will come down to deliver them; 
but in giving this parabolic assurance He asks 
the far-meaning question, "When the Son of 
Man Cometh shall he find faith on the earth?" 

The manner of this question, the use of the 
negative particle in the Greek demand that the 
answer shall be in the negative ; in other words 
it is our Lord's positive and affirmative declara- 
tion that when He comes the faith once for all 
delivered to the saints will have gone from the 
earth. 

In all this, so far from holding out any hope 
that the Church during His absence would con- 
vert the world, the Son of God makes it plain 
that the Church will fail by the way and the 
world becoming more and more rebellious to the 
will of God will become indifferent to and reject 
the Church. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 181 

The apostles corroborate the testimony of the 
Lord. 

The Apostle Paul on his way to Jerusalem 
summons the elders of Ephesus to meet him at 
Miletus and warns them that false teachers will 
arise and seek to draw away disciples after 
them, perverting the faith ; that grievous wolves 
should enter in, not sparing the flock. 

He writes to Timothy, the young preacher, 
and warns him the Spirit speaks expressly that 
in the last times there should be a departure 
from the faith, a giving heed to wandering 
spirits and to doctrines preached and pro- 
claimed by demon-inspired teachers. 

In the second epistle he affirms the professing 
Church will be lovers of pleasures more than 
lovers of God ; there will be a form of godliness, 
but a denial of the power (the Holy Ghost) ; the 
Church will refuse to listen to sound doctrine, 
accepting teachers who shall turn them away 
from the truth. 

So far from Christianity becoming the domi- 
nant fact, at the close of the age there will be a 
great apostasy, a falling away, a down grade; 



182 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

and while the deity of Christ will be denied and 
rejected, the deity of man will be exalted and 
proclaimed. 

The Apostle James warns that the professing 
Church will be guilty of spiritual adultery. Just 
as a faithless woman yields to her paramour the 
Church will surrender to the temptation and se- 
duction of the world ; and the apostle cries out, 
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not 
that the friendship of the world is enmity with 
God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of 
the world, is the enemy of God." 

Peter tells us false teachers should enter the 
Church, even denying the Lord that bought 
them, the truth of God should be defamed and 
many led astray; in the closing hours of the age 
many would arise in the Church who should 
mock, laugh at and deride the doctrine of the 
Second Coming, saying, 'Where is the promise 
of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep, 
all things continue as they were from the be- 
ginning." 

Jude admits that certain men (teachers) had 
already crept into the churches unawares; and 



. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 183 

that it would be necessary to contend earnestly 
for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. 

John says there would arise those who should 
deny the Lord had ever come in the flsh; still 
others who should deny He would come back in 
the flesh ; and he joins hands with Paul in testi- 
fying that the final characteristic of the age will 
be, not the Spirit of Christ, but anti-Christ. 

John is arrested by Rome because of his testi- 
mony for the Lord. He is banished to the island 
of Patmos. He receives there a vision of the 
Lord. The Lord bids him write seven letters to 
the seven churches of Asia. In these letters he 
gives His post-mortem testimony concerning the 
course of the professing Church in the world 
during His absence, just as He had given His 
ante-mortem testimony concerning it in the par- 
ables recorded in Matthew. 

Each of these churches as indicated in the let- 
ters represent a stage in the history of the 
Church at large. 

The predicted course it takes through the 
world is one of departure and final declension. 

In Ephesus it runs away from first love, from 



184 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

personal devotion to Christ, is taken up with the 
things of Christ, but not with Christ^ Himself. 

The letter to Smyrna announces that Juda- 
izing teachers would enter the Church and en- 
deavor to put them on the ground of law and not 
grace. 

In Pergamos the Church turns its back on the 
hope of the Lord's return, unites itself with the 
governments of the world, becomes a Church of 
State and seeks to set up the kingdom of Christ 
while He is still an absent and rejected king. 

In Thyatira the Church is seen to be a com- 
posite of Judaism, Paganism and Apostate 
Christianity, teaches works of merit, fills its 
buildings with images, and leads the people to 
unite in a worship which though Christian in 
name is idolatrous in practice. 

In Sardis the Church sets up a great name, 
professes to stand for spiritual things, fails to 
accomplish the work given to it and becomes 
spiritually dead. 

In Philadelphia there is a revival of the old 
faith, the return to a pure Gospel and the hope 
of the Coming of the Lord. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 185 

Laodicea is the last stage of the Church in the 
world. It has grown great and rich. It is the 
Church of the people. It is a world Church. It 
has need of nothing. It is not dependent on the 
Lord. It can carry on its affairs without Him. 
It is luke-warm. It is indifferent toward Him. 
He is seen outside of it; He knocks on the door, 
He is forced to knock that He may gain the at- 
tention of the Church. He arraigns it as spirit- 
ually blind, naked and poor. He declares He 
will spew it out of His mouth. He will refuse 
to own it any longer as His witness in the earth. 

You have only to take up history to find the 
corroboration of this forecast. 

It was not long before the Church lost the 
vitalizing sense of a personal Lord. He was out 
of sight. The clouds of Heavn shut Him from 
mortal gaze. The' Church could neither see 
nor handle Him. Christians became occupied 
with doing rather than believing; doing things 
for Him, rather than thinking of Him or com- 
ing into conscious relationship with Him. 

False teachers came out from Jerusalem and 
sought to put the Gentile converts under law, 



186 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

making circumcision an integral necessity to sal- 
vation. Paul's epistle to the Galatians under 
God, and by the inspiration of the Spirit, is the 
outgrowth of the endeavor. It is in this epistle 
he rebukes those who having begun in the spirit 
seek to be justified or made perfect in the flesh. 
It is in this epistle he warns that the Christian 
who puts himself under law has fallen from 
grace. 

After the victory at Saxa-Rubra and the Mel- 
vin Bridge Constantine, who professed to have 
seen a cross in the Heavens with the words 
"By this sign conquer," adopted Christianity as 
the religion of state. The Church at once lost 
its vision of Heaven and was filled with the 
dream of conquest, taking the world for Christ 
and setting up His Kingdom. Like the mustard 
tree the Church began to root itself in the earth 
and was soon invaded by the ambitions, the 
powers and the works of the flesh. Instead of a 
simple company of believers walking by faith 
and waiting for an absent Lord, depending 
wholly on Him, the Church bloomed with 
wealth, with outward show and pomp. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 187 

The priesthood of Israel was introduced, the 
temples of the gods were turned into churches, 
the heathen images were consecrated as saints, 
the feast days of Paganism were celebrated as 
feast days with Christian names or titles, the 
doctrines of Christianity were perverted to suit 
the demands of the times, other and new doc- 
trines were invented and an apostate and idola- 
trous Christianity filled the earth until the 
centuries of its dominance became so dark, so 
actually black with ignorance and a sensual, 
ritualistic worship that they are called and 
known as the ''dark ages." 

Four hundred years ago under Luther and 
others a protest was made against Rome and her 
iniquities. Protestantism arose as an historic 
schism, professing to stand for the whole Bible 
and a spiritual Christianity. For a while it 
threatened to overthrow Rome, then lost much 
of the ground it had gained, became unspiritual 
and to-day, while thoroughly religious and full 
of fleshly, administrative ability is spiritually 
dead. Each year it is breaking up into fresh 
sects. Each year Rome seems to regain new life 



188 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

vigor, aggressiveness, and with an unbroken 
solidarity is marching steadily forward to the 
temporal sovereignty foretold of John in the 
seventeenth of the Revelation, where under the 
figure of the scarlet clad woman, she rides the 
symbolic beast of the revived Roman Empire. 

Within the last century and particularly with- 
in the last twenty-five years there have been 
those who have been awakened to the truth of a 
pure Gospel, a present salvation and the return 
of the Lord as the Blessed Hope. This move- 
ment has been one of individuals rather than of 
churches; although, there are assemblies here 
and there which have placed themselves on rec- 
ord as standing for the faith once for all deliv- 
ered to the saints. 

The last vision of the professing Church is 
given in the amazing letter to the assembly at 
Laodicea. 

Like Laodicea the professing Church has be- 
come a world Church, whether considered in 
the light of Romanism or viewed as the Protes- 
tant section. The Church is rich (not only is 
Rome rich, but Protestantism, also; that is to 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 189 

say, the wealth of the world is in the hands of 
professed Christians). The Protestant churches 
are becoming more and more identified with the 
civilization of the world, seeking to become 
more and more a factor in it. Its advanced men 
repudiate the Bible as the wholly inspired Word 
of God, make sub-conscious influence the final 
standard of spiritual authority, and cutting out 
the eschatology of the Bible, turn their backs on 
the hereafter, are taken up with this world, the 
life that now is and seek with fleshy energy to 
make the world a better world for the natural 
man to live in, and the natural man a better man 
to live in the world. Every day the evidence is 
manifest that the power of the Spirit is being 
withdrawn and the professing Church being left 
to its own way. 

If the Son of God and His apostles give clear 
outline of the course of the Church in this world 
during His absence, they give equally clear and 
unqualified outline of the course of the world 
itself and the characteristic finality of the age. 

In His last discourse upon the Mount of 
Olives the Lord draws a startling picture of the 
things that are to come to pass while He is away. 



190 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

He announces the battle line will be flung 
round the circumference of the earth. There 
shall be wars and rumors of wars. Nation shall 
rise against nation and kingdom against king- 
dom. The conflict will be both racial and 
dynastic. Earthquakes shall shatter the solid 
ground. Famine and pestilence shall walk hand 
in hand. Truth smitten and wounded shall fall 
in the streets ; while the lie, chariot-rolled, shall 
sweep on its unhindered and unwelcomed way. 
The Devil will go about, not with hoofs and 
horns, but transformed as an angel of light. 
False Christs shall swarm and work miracles 
which, if it were possible, should deceive the 
very elect. There shall be distress of nations and 
world-wide perplexity. The Heavens will seem 
as though every star had loosened and the un- 
bolted sky would fall. The sea and the waves 
roaring shall break upon the resounding shores. 
Men's hearts shall fail them for looking upon 
the things ^that are coming on the earth. Law- 
lessness shall be multiplied and iniquity like a 
thick and turgid tide rise up and overflow the 
foundations of the righteous j and that we may 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 191 

in no wise misunderstand the moral breakdown 

of the foreseen hour the Son of God in terrible 

« 

but incisive words declares, ^'As it was in the 
days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of 
the Son of Man." "Likewise as it was in the 
days of hot^ 

We know what it was in the days of Noah. 

The earth was filled with sin, iniquity and 
shame. Violence and lawlessness reigned su- 
preme. Murder was a fine art, vice a virtue. 
The intents and purposes in the heart of man 
were evil and evil only, continually. It was a 
time of civilization, a civilization that builded 
cities and planted gardens, wrought in brass, 
constructed organs, instruments of music and 
had a literature of its own. It was a civilization 
which for illustration and demonstration might 
be compared to a man who carries in his hand a 
bouquet of beautiful and fragrant flowers while 
he walks in the midst of unspeakable filth and 
slime whose nauseating depths reach to his waist. 

We know what it was in the days of Lot. 

We know what it was in that city of Sodom 
in which to his shame and confusion he dwelt. 



192 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

A city so filled with vice and lust its name has 
passed current for ages as the concrete expres- 
sion of all that is unnameable in sin. 

And the Son of God, He who is the headquar- 
ters of truth, who is the very truth and no lie, 
says the world in the end of this age will be 
morally as it was in the days of Noah, as it was 
in the days of Sodom. 

Now and then there are doors opened in our 
underworld and glimpses given which cause a 
shudder. From time to time other doors are 
opened in the upperworld, in the realm and 
reign of culture, and revelations are given which 
make it manifest that between the upper and the 
nether strata there is a common bond of corrup- 
tion and the unchanged demands of the flesh. 

Let the boast go on that the world is growing 
better and the sudden down-swing of the words 
of Christ, "As it was in the days of Noe, like- 
wise as it was in the days of Lot," ring over 
against the baseless boasting as an alarum bell 
bidding us to know they sleep or deceive who 
cry, "All is well." 

The Apostle Paul lifts up his corroborating 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 193 

note of warning that in the last days there shall 
be, not peaceful, but perilous times, evil men 
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiv- 
ing and being deceived. He warns us that at 
the very moment when men shall be crying 
peace and safety, at that moment, sudden de- 
struction shall fall upon them as travail upon a 
woman with child. 

James gives a description of the closing hours 
of our own time which may well make us pause 
and reflect. There will be those who are spe- 
cifically designated as ^^rich" men. They shall, 
by means of their heaped-up riches (^^heaped-up 
treasures," the Spirit calls them) syndicate and 
control the affairs and the products of the world. 
They shall keep back the just wages of the la- 
borer. These wages kept back by ^^fraud" shall 
cry aloud in the ears of the God of Sabaoth and 
demand the thrusting forth of His arm and the 
smiting of His vengeance. The rich and the 
poor shall stand facing each other. At the end 
the hand of violence shall lay hold of the rich, 
scattering their treasure, while the cry of their 
anguish goes up to the unanswering skies. 



194 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

It will be a time of class and mass, of violence 
and hatred ; and when the thought of the "broth- 
erhood of man'' shall be only as when a laugh 
smites against the face of sorrow and pity is 
turned to mockery. 

Peter tells us there will be those who shall 
walk after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanli- 
ness, despising government, presumptuous, self- 
willed, repudiating dignities and lashing the 
loosed tongue of scandal. 

Even though he would speak in the accents of 
love John cannot hold back the warning which 
breaks through his speech as he declares foul 
spirits of evil will go forth to lead the whole 
world to battle. 

No matter from what point you scan the 
world, whether from the Mount of Olives or the 
isle of Patmos; from the point of view of the 
Son of God, or His apostles ; whether it be the 
discourse of the Christ or that John who lay 
upon His breast, there is no sign upon the hori- 
zon of the angel of peace. In all the winds that 
blow there is no other sound than the cries of 
warring nations, the hiss as of serpents in the 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 195 

way, the jangle and confusion of tongues, anger, 
hatred, envy and jealousy, the stains of murder, 
the rising forms of sunless unbelief, the demon 
figure of infidelity and the beast whose manifold 
names write the word of blasphemy. 

And yet in the face of these outlines flung 
forth by the tongue and pen of inspiration men 
talk of a world moving with cumulative step 
and Gospel victories to the splendid glory of 
millennial days. 

But not only do Christ and His apostles testify 
that the Church instead of overcoming and con- 
verting the world will be overcome and con- 
verted by the world; not only do they testify 
with unbroken consent that the age in which we 
live will increase in sin, in wrong, in open unbe- 
lief and sinister infidelity, they testify with com- 
mon accord that the kingdom is to be introduced, 
not by the preaching of the Gospel, but by hard- 
ening judgments poured upon the earth, judg- 
ments that shall precede and those that shall ac- 
company our Lord Jesus Christ at His Coming; 
and that it is by His personal appearing and 



196 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

glory the millennial kingdom is at last to be 
brought in and established. 

Our Lord says His Coming shall be, not as 
when the first sound of a song breaks in harmony 
on the ear; not as when a smile wreathes the lips 
of love ; nor as when the even tones of peace pro- 
nounce a benediction and the hand of greeting 
gives the touch of grace — No — but — as it was in 
the days of Noah. 

As it was in the days of Noah! 

And again let it be said, we know how it was 
in the days of Noah. 

The crowd laughed as it went by while Noah 
preached. Noah builded and preached while 
the crowd laughed and went by. Each day he 
builded the growing ark became an increasing 
condemnation to the careless world. 

Then, suddenly, without warning, the Lord 
called Noah into that finished ark, shut the dooi 
and bolted him in. 

For seven days no sound was heard without: 
but the mockery of men and now and then some 
wonder at the preacher's sudden disappearance. 

But after seven days! 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 197 

Clouds now rose hither and yon. The Heav- 
ens bent low over the earth. The upper gates, 
the gates "above the expanse" were unlocked as 
when the rings of Saturn should be broken. All 
the ocean tides of the upper deep poured forth. 
The fountains of the lowest deeps were broken 
up. The rain came. The waters descended. 
The waters rose. They ascended above the high 
hills. There was only the sullen and awful roar 
of the waters. The cry of men and beast was 
lost in the smashing thunder of the rising and 
the falling and the up-leaping waters, waters 
that rose and fell and leaped like monster beasts 
as they might leap and spring and sink their 
fangs in helpless and in yielding prey. All ex- 
cept those in the ark were swept away. The ap- 
peals for help to the silent and pitiless sky, the 
agony of despair were unheard. There was only 
the lifted and falling dead, lifted, fallen and 
flung back by the maddened, resistless and re- 
lentless waters. 

And like that He will come. 

Suddenly, without warning to the world He 
will come unseen into the upper air, call the 



198 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Church into His presence and hold them with 
Him there secure against any threatened woe. 

Then seven years, at least, will pass, while a 
guessing, a bewildered and Devil-led world will 
discuss the disappearance of the "few." 

Seven years/ And then as when great beams 
in a mighty building crack; as when rocks are 
rifted under driving blasts; as when the solid 
ground seems to vanish beneath the feet; as 
when the Heavens above sway and swing as 
though they turned about the mast-top of a toss- 
ing ship, then crash of thunders, each crowding 
on the other, and lightnings that are as awful 
as the unmasked face of an executioner about to 
swing his axe ; yea, as when the flood of a long 
pent-up wrath that is none other than the wrath 
of God shall burst forth; so will He come to 
sweep away with the besom of destruction all 
that is unclean and untoward in that earth He 
has purchased by His blood. 

Then will He set up the kingdom of His 
righteousness. 

As it was in the days of Lot. 

And again let it be said, we know what it was 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 199 

in the days of Lot in that Sodom in which he 
dwelt. 

First of all, let it be remembered, if we would 
read aright the story of Lot, he looked toward 
Sodom. Then he pitched his tent toward Sodom. 
He became a dweller in Sodom. He took office 
in Sodom. He went into politics in Sodom. He 
vexed his righteous soul in Sodom. (He had 
vexed it by the filthy conversation of the 
wicked.) He lost his testimony in Sodom. Then 
the Lord sent his angels and snatched His incon- 
sistent and worldly follower from the doomed 
city. He was snatched out of Sodom at the close 
of a day — at eventide. When the morning broke, 
it broke in flames, the fires descended and de- 
voured the impossible city. 

Like Lot many in the Church are identified 
with the world. There are those who seek to 
cleanse it, purify it and make it better. They 
have lost their testimony. They cannot talk 
about separation from the world, seeing they 
have themselves become a part of it. Their tes- 
timony produces laughter, not faith, repudia- 
tion, not repentance. 



200 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Suddenly, the Lord will reach down and 
snatch them out to meet Him in the air. After 
that will come the morning. The wrath of God 
like devouring flames will fall upon a world 
sunken in sin. The Lord Himself as final judge 
will come and then — the longed and looked-for 
kingdom. 

The kingdom is introduced by judgments at 
the Coming of the Lord. 

The aspostles corroborate the Lord. 

The Apostle Paul says He is coming with His 
mighty angels in flaming fire to take vengeance 
on those who know not God and who have not 
obeyed the Gospel. 

He is coming to find Satan incarnate in the 
man of sin. With the breath of His lips and the 
brightness of His presence He will overthrow 
him and bring in that kingdom in which the 
Devil and the Devil's man shall be bound be- 
neath His feet for a thousand years, 

James says the Lord is coming. He is com- 
ing as a judge. He already stands, even, at the 
door. 

Jude says He is coming with ten thousand of 
His saints to execute judgment. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 201 

Listen well ! 

He is coming, not to find a converted world, a 
world filling the air with songs and hallelujahs 
to His name. 

No! 

He is coming to find a world of ungoldly sin- 
ners, a world filled with hard speeches spoken 
against God. 

Hard speeches! 

If all the hard things that have been spoken, 
the rebel words, the fretful words, words of 
fault-finding and murmuring uttered against 
Him; if all the unclean, cursing, obscene words 
could be gathered together and made to roll 
down each of the m_ain streets of all the towns in 
all the world, there would be seen such a tide, 
such a surging, awful monstrous tide of filth and 
poison, the spume of serpents and the black, fes- 
tering of corruption; words leaping up and tak- 
ing such form that they would appear in all their 
horror like great clots of gangrene and sickening 
miasma and fever, by the side of which the 
Cloaca Maxima with its fetid and unceasing 
stream of pollution of more than twice a thou- 



202 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

sand years should be as a crystal stream when it 
breaks beneath a cloudless morning from moun- 
tain fastnesses. 

He is coming to find a world polluted by six 
thousand years of indulged sin. He is coming to 
execute judgment upon it, cleanse it and then set 
up His millennial kingdom of purity, chastity 
and righteousness. 

What Christ and His apostles say about the 
introduction of the kingdom the prophets of the 
Old Testament Scriptures without exception 
say. 

One after another announces that in the latter 
days the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the 
earth as waters cover the face of the deep. The 
Lord will be the King and God of the whole 
earth. 

All the prophets say that. 

They look forward and bid us look forward 
with unstinted faith to that glorious and good 
time coming when the lion and the lamb shall lie 
down together; when they shall no more hurt, 
nor destroy in all the earth. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 203 

But how do they predict this glorious king- 
dom time is to be introduced? 

The answer is — always by judgments and 
never by the Gospel. 

Always, and climacterically, by the Coming 
of the Lord, 

The testimony of one prophet may do as a 
sample of all. 

Zephaniah testifies that all shall call upon the 
name of the Lord and serve Him with one con- 
sent. 

But when is this to be? 

Speaking by the mouth of the prophet the 
Lord Himself says: 

^^My determination is to gather the nations 
(the ten nations of the revised Roman Empire 
under the last great Kaiser), to pour upon them 
mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for 
all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of 
my jealousy. For then (mark you that) for 
then {after He has poured out His anger in 
judgment) then will I turn to the people a pure 
language that they may all call upon the name of 
the Lord, to serve him with one consent." 



204 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

Between the last days of the Old Testament 
and the last days of the New there is the Second 
Personal Coming of the Son of God. 

He is away. He is the light of the world. 
While He is away there will be spiritual dark- 
ness and blackness of iniquity. He is Coming. 
He is coming to smite iniquity, to execute judg- 
ment, to dissipate the darkness, then will the 
kingdom shine forth, and those who are His, in 
the glory of it. 

Judgment and the climacteric, catastrophic 
Coming of the Son of God — the only way to the 
millennium. 

That is the testimony of Christ Himself. 

It is the testimony of the apostles. 

It is the unbroken testimony of the prophets. 

But now turn to the book of Revelation and 
read from the sixth chapter to the nineteenth, 
fourteen chapters, a double seven. 

Turn to these chapters and you will find there 
a word painting such as can be found in no other 
literature on earth. 

There Is the breaking of seals, the sounding of 
trumpets, thunderings and lightnings, and hail 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 205 

Stones weighing hundreds of pounds. Fire flows 
down from the heavens like a river of scarlet. 
It burns up the trees and the grasses. The very 
air is inflamed. The seas are turned to blood. 
All living things therein die. The rivers and 
streams and fountains of waters are turned to 
wormwood. They gave Him wormwood and 
gall to drink when on the cross, but He would 
not. Now the waters are turned to the same bit- 
ter draught. Those who are thirsty must drink 
of this bitterness and be maddened with increas- 
ing thirst. The sun becomes a great black blot. 
The moon is turned to a clot of blood as though 
all the blood of all the battlefields through all the 
circling years had poured forth into one great 
deep, indelibly centered spot; as when all curves 
and all bending lines are at last drawn up and 
thrown down in one single, final spot. The 
Heavens are undone and the stars like drunken 
things go tottering and stumbling in their orbits. 
The bottomless pit is opened and uncounted 
hosts of the disembodied, imprisoned and un- 
righteous dead come forth. They enter the 
bodies of men and torment them. Men seek 



206 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

death and death flees from them. Men are 
crazed with desire for suicide. They cannot kill 
themselves because these lost spirits know that it 
is their last opportunity for embodiment — that 
the Gehenna of eternal disembodiment awaits 
them; they will not let their victims kill them- 
selves. They possess them and hold them in the 
torment of life. After a season the earth will 
be filled with the murder of those who are un- 
willing to die. Plague and pestilence will run a 
race with famine. The heat of the sun will be 
as when the doors of a furnace heated seven 
times hotter than its usual wont are opened and 
the flame for a moment beaten down by the draft 
flies out and fills the air till it seems itself like a 
circumambient flame. It will be a time of agony, 
anguish, despair, of tribulation unparalleled and 
greater than mortal flesh can bear. 

Yonder in Europe, in the territory once occu- 
pied by Rome the red waves of war are seen 
lashing the shores of England and then rolling 
eastward to break with their bloody surge upon 
the plains of Persia. They swell upward, mount 
and break with the spume and froth of blood till 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 207 

the Danubian solitudes and German forests are 
crimson and the fields are full of the tide of war. 
They recede, they drive downward to the Afri- 
can shores and the yellow sands of the desert. 
The people revolt. They rise and rush like the 
rushing of the seas. Out of the tempest and the 
tossings ten Democratic kingdoms are seen (you 
may read of these ten in the thirteenth and seven- 
teenth chapters). Six of these kingdoms are 
west of the Dardenelles, Four are eastward and 
include Persia. 

Forth from the East there comes a figure, a 
soldier, a conqueror. He sweeps westward. 
None can make war with him. No matter how 
many or skillful the combinations against him 
he breaks through them all. He is superior to 
all. In mingled despair and adoration the world 
cries out: 

"Who can make war with this wild beast?" 
None can. The ten kings own their helpless- 
ness. They elect him king over all. He takes the 
double-headed eagle, the monstrous two-headed 
and one-bodied bird displayed on the ensigns of 
Austria, Germany and Russia, He points to the 



2o8 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

two heads on the one body. One head represents 
the Western Empire of Rome. The other the 
Eastern Empire of Rome. He declares the two 
halves now united in him, one body, one head. 
Rome is revived under this tenfold form. This 
man symbolized as a Wild Beast, the man of 
f rightfulness and terror becomes a King of kings 
and Lord of lords. He is a devilized and de- 
monized Kaiser. He rushes eastward. He 
crosses the Dardenelles. He marches beyond 
the Taurus. He fights his battles in Armenia 
and in Assyria. He turns and rushes through 
Syria. He overthrows all opposition. He gath- 
ers his armies under the walls of Jerusalem. He 
fills the valley of Jehoshaphat with his troops. 
His banners float on the very heights of Olivet. 

Then comes the climax ! 

By the inspiration of God the seer of Patmos 
describes it. 

The door in Heaven is opened. 

In the fourth chapter it opens that the elect 
Church may ascend and pass through it into 
Heaven. It opens just as the door of the ark 
opened to take in Noah and his family. Just as 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 209 

the door of the marriage chamber was opened to 
take in the wise virgins. 

The door in Heaven is now flung wide open 
and the Son of God comes forth. 

He is riding on a white horse. He has many 
crowns on His head. His eyes are as a flame of 
fire. A two-edged sword goes out of His mouth. 
The hoofs of His horse beat down the slant of 
Heaven. The hoof beats are the thunders of 
judgment. Behind Him there ride other horse- 
men. These are the saints of God, the redeemed 
of the Lord. There are tens of thousands and ten 
times thousands of thousands of the angels of 
God who accompany them. The flaming cheru- 
bim and the singing seraphim are there. All 
the universe is moved at His Coming. Every- 
thing is in vibration to the heart of it. The 
farthest worlds send their hosts. The very move- 
ment of them is the unloading of uncounted and 
immeasurable volts of electricity. 

His eyes cause all eyes to look upon Him. 

What eyes they are! 

They have looked behind the doors of palace 
and of hut. They have looked behind the doors 



210 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

in the homes of king and cotter, prince and peas- 
ant, rich and poor. 

These eyes have looked upon sorrow, upon an- 
guish and pain. They have been filled with such 
tears as He wept by the grave of Lazarus. 

These eyes have witnessed scenes of inde- 
scribable iniquity, debauchery and sin, from the 
wild orgies of Babylon, the Messalinian ban- 
quets of Rome to the equally shameless festals of 
our day; and the fire of wrath has been kindled 
in those eyes. 

Those eyes have looked down into the intents 
and purposes of the heart. They have pene- 
trated to the roots of desire, to impulse and mo- 
tive. 

These eyes are blazing now. 

All the pent-up fury of righteous indignation ; 
all the antagonism of holiness to sin is burning as 
on a brazier where every coal is taken from the 
depths of God's essential being of holiness. The 
glances of His eyes flash forth as when lightnings 
pierce the thick and fetid cloud. 

They reveal, they make manifest every secret 
thought and hidden deed. They scorch. They 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 2 1 1 

burn. They wither and consume all that is un- 
clean, unrighteous and untrue. 

He is coming to tread the wine press. 

He is coming to tread it alone. 

The wine press is the earth, the earth in Pales- 
tine. 

The grapes are the bodies of men. 

The juice as it bursts forth and runs red be- 
neath His feet, a red that is a deep, dark red, is 
the red of the blood of the arteries of men. 

And this blood will run a stream sixteen hun- 
dred furlongs in length. 

He is coming, not with an olive branch, but 
with a rod of iron. 

He is coming, not to touch the earth as softly 
as a kiss on upturned and waiting lips. 

Nay! Not with a kiss is He Coming, but to 
smite the earth which gave Him a cross of wood, 
a crown of thorns and a borrowed grave. 

He has not forgotten and the earth shall ter- 
ribly remember. 

And why is He Coming in this fashion? 

And what will He find when He comes? 

Will He find a world whose swords have been 



212 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

beaten into plough shares and whose spears have 
been beaten into pruning hooks? 

Will He find a world where uncounted church 
spires point to Heaven and where church bells 
are ringing to bid Him welcome? 

Will He find the inhabitants of the earth 
standing like white robed choirs singing ho- 
sannas to His name and casting garlands of wel- 
coming praise at His feet, every voice bidding 
Him come? 

Nay! Nay! and alas, Nay! 

He will find a world arrayed in organized re- 
bellion against Him, ready to deny, reject, and 
if needs be, crucify Him. A world filled with the 
shouting of the captains, with the voice of phil- 
osophy, the assaults of science, the treason of 
those who should be His ambassadors. He will 
find human genius in partnership with the 
powers of darkness against Him. 

In short, a rebel world will rise up with all the 
insolence of its unbelief and senseless infidelity 
to defy Him. 

Devil duped and Devil led the world of hu- 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 213 

man culture, human progress will fling itself 
against the bosses of Jehovah's buckler. 

Then will He smite as wiien the delayed light- 
ning falls. 

He overthrows the armies of the Beast. 

He scatters them as the leaves of autumn are 
scattered by the windy blast. 

He binds Satan in the pit. 

He shuts him up for a thousand years. 

And THEN — 

And NOT TILL THEN, does the kingdom of the 
thousand years begin. 

.0 that I had the genius of a supreme artist, 
I would paint this picture in such a fashion that 
the blindest and most self-determined post-mil- 
lennialist could not fail to see the truth. 

Take up this nineteenth chapter of the Reve- 
lation and read it. 

Let the scene paint itself before your very eyes. 

Christ and His saints coming down those 
heavens. 

The world in rebellion and banded iniquity 
before Him. 



214 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

He executes judgment against this organized 
system. 

He overthrows it. 

He binds the Devil. 

Then He sets up the kingdom and those who 
are His, and come with Him, reign with Him a 
thousand years. 

He comes first. 

He comes before the thousand years. 

He comes before the millennium therefore. 

A child can see that. 

He comes in visible glory. 

Accept all the figures, make them as figurative 
and symbolical as you like, and then after you 
have done all that you face the fact that away 
back yonder under the star-studded sky of Judea, 
on that last night of the Supper He said: 

"I WILL COME AGAIN." 

Not '^My Spirit;" not a phantom of Himself; 
not some emanation of Himself, but as Paul 
dynamically says : 

"The Lord Himself." 

All this reality, personality and promised visi- 
bility are back of, supporun^ and sustaining all 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 215 

the figurative and symbolic color you may see fit 
to crowd into and upon this descriptive chapter. 

Whatever else you may see, you must see that 
the Lord is coming out in glory and that the mil- 
lennium comes after He comes. 

And it is not begging the question to say this. 

Put it in any shape you like, twist it into all 
the spiritualized vacuity you please, the fact re- 
mains that He is represented in the words of 
Holy Writ as Coming First, and the millennium 
— Second, 

Thus God writes Pre-Millennialism in the 
colors and forms and figures af these nineteenth 
and twentieth chapters of the Revelation. 

The book shows us the professing Church go- 
ing from departure to repudiation. 

It shows us the true Church inside the profess- 
ing Church separated from the great mass of 
meaningless profession, caught up to Heaven 
and enthroned in power. 

It gives us the record of fourteen chapters of 
hell on earth, the marriage supper in the nine- 
teenth, the Coming forth in visible splendor in 
open glory, in executive judgment — 



21 6 the second coming of christ 

And then. 

And then — What? 

Satan bound, the kingdom set up, the millen- 
nium begun. 

What shall be said of men who with an open 
Bible before them, with the unbroken testimony 
of Holy Scripture that there can be no millen- 
nium till Christ comes, that He must come be- 
fore the millennium comes; that parable and 
figure and symbol and definite discourse demon- 
strate and prove that He must so come; that His 
Coming is pre-millennial; what shall be said of 
men, of teachers who in the face of all this teach 
the world is to be converted by the Gospel and 
the millennium run its course of peace before 
Christ can come; that the world is growing 
every day spiritually better? 

What shall be said of men who as the globe 
turns from night to day and finds the red line of 
war meeting each sunrise ; who in an hour when 
the banner of a boasted civilization has been torn 
to shreds and every standard of righteousness 
and truth is being trampled in the mire and mud 
and red slime of an unchecked barbarism; who 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 217 

in an hour when Belgian women and children lie 
quivering and helpless under the heel of self- 
vaunted supermen ; when women are worse than 
slain and children mutilated; when art and re- 
finement and all highest human culture are made 
to give way to the genius of war and the demon 
of destruction; what shall be said of men who 
with all this piled-up heap of undeniable testi- 
mony, preach the world is to be and now is be- 
ing converted by the Gospel and the millennium 
as consequent set up; who deliberately and in 
the face of the inspird Word of God, banish the 
Son of God from the threshold of the earth, 
from nearness to the Church and give Him a 
horizon on which to appear, a horizon remote 
with the remoteness of a thousand years after a 
converted world, a conversion for which there 
is not a single promise from one end of Scripture 
to the other. 

What can you say of such teachers? 

Allowing charity to dictate the terms the most 
conservative and conceding thing you can say is 
that they are blind leaders of the blind. 

I say unto you, post-millennialism is the dry 



21 8 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

rot in theological exposition. It is a teaching 
whose collocation of terms are words without 
knowledge. It is this pre-determined concept 
that the world must be converted by the Gospel 
which formulates the theology of the schools. It 
is this pre-determined and so-called optimism of 
human invention which sends the young semi- 
nary graduate out to better a world system which 
God has judged ; which carries him down from 
the ground of the supernatural to the natural; 
which leads him to lose sight of the age to come 
in the uninspired endeavor to set up the king- 
dom of Christ in a world which rejected Him 
and where the shadow of His cross still falls as 
the shadow of an unexpiated crime. 

It is this post-millennialism which is abso- 
lutely without the very first principle of Biblical 
exegesis, which denies the very first law of a sane 
exegesis, ^Wightly dividing the word of truth/' 
it is this utter lack of exegesis which is the bane 
of post-millennialism, giving to Scripture the 
propositions it never makes, the theological 
formulae which have no basis, leading men to 
expect results which are never achieved, reacting 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 2 1 9 

upon the enthusiasm of the Church and taking 
away from it the only hope which can warrant 
it to look beyond the warring nations, beyond the 
hideous face of infidelity, the snarl of doubt and 
all the inrushing tide of mere religiousness and 
all enslaving materialism to that moment when 
He who is both God and man shall come by 
right of creative power and redemptive blood 
to take His own world to Himself and reign and 
rule in it for God and men. 

Post-millennialism ought to be repudiated by 
the Church. 

The Church ought to awake, arouse, and 
searching Holy Scripture make it impossible for 
such teaching to find a foothold. 

I exhort you as Christians to awake. 

Christ is Coming! Every day bears witness 
the age is drawing to an end, and to an end pre- 
dicted and warned of God. Your opportunities 
to serve Him here in the hour of His rejection 
are passing. You cannot afford to stand still. 
Some of you are not as near nor in such fellow- 
ship and communion with Him as you were a 
week ago. You are allowing yourselves to drift 



2 20 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 

The comfort and the joy which should be yours 
in Christ you do not have. You are rapidly be- 
coming like the one in Sardis, having a name to 
live and yet dead — spiritually dead. How many 
have you brought to Christ in a week, a month, 
a year? If the Lord should come to-night and 
take you within the upper gates would you pass 
all your eternity without being able to find one 
soul whom you had led to Him or brought to 
Heaven? What an eternal sense of selfishness 
would be yours ; and how your empty handed- 
ness may be the back sweep of an eternal regret 
emphasized in proportion to your own selfish en- 
joyment there. 

I would exhort you while you have time, to 
arouse and make your calling and election sure. 
Not all who say, "Lord, Lord," shall enter in, 
even though they may have done great and nota- 
ble things in His name. 

You have no time to lose, Christ is Coming. 

Let me exhort you who are unsaved to turn 
and take the salvation which is now so freely of- 
fered you. Let me exhort you to awake before 
the trumpet sounds. The Lord is Coming. Any 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 221 

moment He may come and snatch the Church 
away and shut you out to the smiting of His 
eternal wrath. 

But even while I invite you to come, I lift up 
my voice and utter this prayer: 

"Accomplish, O Lord, the number of Thine 
elect; get through the preaching of Thy Gospel 
those who shall be eternally Thine, and eternally 
Thine because eternally chosen of Thee. Come, 
execute Thy righteous judgment, make clean this 
sin-stained, tear-drenched earth and bring in the 
glad millennial day. Come, Lord, come and 
tarry not; for every day every need of the earth 
is ever crying — 'Come/ *" 



IV 

THE SECRET AND IMMINENT COMING OF 
CHRIST 



The Secret and Imminent 
Coming of Christ 

"Behold I come as a thief." (Revelation i6: 

^'Behold he cometh with clouds; and every 
eye shall see him." (Revelation 1:7.) 

In the first text the Coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ is compared to that of a thief who comes 
secretly and of course unseen. The other is a 
declaration that He will come publicly and be 
visible to all. 

The texts appear to contradict each other. 
Actually, they do not. Each is the description 
of a distinctive part of the Second Coming. The 
Second Coming of Christ has two well defined 
parts. In the one He comes secretly for His 
Church. In the other He comes publicly with 
His Church. 

In presenting the theme I shall follow three 
lines of development: 



2 26 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
while one great event is twofold in order: He 
will come for His Church and after an interval 
with His Church. 

The Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ for the 
Church will be secret and is imminent. 

As a Church we are to wait and be ready for 
the secret, and imminent Coming of the Lord. 

I. The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ while one great events is twofold in or- 
der. He will come FOR His Church and after an 
interval WITH His Church. 

The twofold order of the Second Coming is set 
forth in type, symbol, parable, construction of 
Scripture, specially inspired words, direct decla- 
ration and scenic illustration. 

It is set forth in such typical personal figures 
as Enoch, Noah, Lot, Joseph, Moses and Zip- 
porah. 

Enoch lived at a time antecedent to the flood 
when the sin, the iniquity and shame of the world 
rolled the slush and the slime of the festering, 
thick waves of an indescribable materialism over 
every possible foundation of righteousness. It 



COMING OF CHRIST 227 

was a time of lawlessness, lechery, measureless 
violence and — civilization, a civilization found- 
ed by Cain and set up in the blood of his mur- 
dered brother. 

Although living in the midst of this civiliza- 
tion, violence, crime and lust; in an environment 
that made an appeal through every avenue of the 
senses to the flesh and to its innate desires for grati- 
fication, Enoch walked apart from it all. He 
lived, not merely a negative life, refusing to 
have fellowship with the world and walking 
apart from it; but, on the contrary, made his 
walk a positive and aggressive testimony against 
it; for three hundred years, which eventually 
swept all but eight persons into the uprising and 
irresistible tide of evil, he walked with God, 
went on with God, in God's way, taken up with 
the things of God, holding converse and intimate 
communion with God, pleasing God at every 
step till, at last, one day, he walked on so far and 
intimately with Him he found himself, suddenly, 
and without — dying, in Heaven with God. 

The Lord had translated Enoch from earth to 
Heaven, 



22 8 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

The Church has been set up of God in a world 
of sin, a world which in proportion as it shall in- 
crease in knowledge, in wisdom, in culture and 
civilization, will repudiate the mind and thought 
of God and refuse to walk in His way. 

The Church is not here to modify human na- 
ture, become a factor in its civilization, make the 
world a better world for the natural man to live 
in, or make the natural man a better man to live 
in the world. 

The very name and title of the Church repudi- 
ate such an idea. The word, ''church" signifies 
in its root meaning a body of persons called out 
and separated from the world, separated from it 
as a system whose principles and way are not the 
principles and way of the Spirit, but of the flesh. 

By its constitution and calling the Church is 
here to protest against the world, and no matter 
how refined and beautiful that world may be- 
come, no matter how efficient as a system, to pro- 
test against it and refuse its civilization. 

The Church like Enoch is to walk the path of 
separation, to walk with God, to be taken up 
with the things of God and to live such a 



COMING OF CHRIST 229 

heavenly life, a life of obedience and guidance 
by the Spirit, that man shall see in that Church 
the manifestation and revelation of God, and re- 
ceive from it the impact of divine power and 
presence; in short, the Church is here to be a 
spiritual light in spiritual darkness, and the 
voice of God warning the world against the evil 
of its way, the certainty of coming judgment and 
inviting men to faith in a crucified and risen 
Christ as the only path by which the sons of men 
may find the Fatherhood of God and life eternal. 

The course of the Church has its limit. Chris- 
tianity was never intended to be permanent in the 
world. Like Enoch the Church will be trans- 
lated, the dead in Christ will be raised, the living 
will be changed and together caught up to meet 
the Lord. The Church will be taken into the 
place the Lord has gone to prepare and will be 
at home in Heaven with Him. 

Noah was a preacher of righteousness. The 
Spirit was his coadjutor. For one hundred and 
twenty years he strove with men. Under de- 
tailed instructions from the Lord he builded an 
ark for the saving of his household. It was a 



230 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

warning that God was about to judge the world, 
to smite it for its sin, its violence and crime. It 
was a condemnation of the world, a definite dec- 
laration that the end of all flesh had come before 
Him. He was through with it. He had no 
longer any hope in it. He could no longer be 
patient with it and would sweep it away. Every 
hammer stroke driving a nail, every sound of 
building and construction in the ark was an ac- 
cent, an emphasis of God's condemnation against 
the world. At the same time, the open door was 
a daily invitation to flee from the wrath to come, 
to find shelter and security in the way of salva- 
tion which God Himself had provided. 

One day, without warning, the Lord called 
Noah and his family into the ark, closed the door 
and shut them in. Seven days passed, days 
ominous in their silence, a silence broken only 
by the discordant laughter of men and the mock- 
ing questions concerning the sudden disappear- 
ance of the woe burdened preacher and his fam- 
ily. Then there was the crash as of opening gates 
in Heaven, the uprush as of loosened fountains 
in the deep, and the flood in all its limitless fury 
and desolating power was upon the earth. 



COMING OF CHRIST 231 

The Church is here like Noah to condemn the 
world, to testify against it. The foundation fact 
of Christian experience condemns it. The foun- 
dation fact of genuine Christian experience is re- 
generation. The fact of regeneration is the dec- 
laration that no matter how well born you may 
be the first time you can not enter into fellowship 
and peace with God unless you are born the sec- 
ond time. Each church building, if the Church 
be true to the faith which warranted the build- 
ing, is a proclamation to every passerby that the 
old nature of the flesh is repudiated of God ; that 
no matter what ef^fort may be made to cultivate 
or purify that nature of flesh, God has set it aside 
and set it aside forever. 

The Church is here, like Noah, as a warning. 
It is here to arouse men from the sleep, from the 
torpor, of self-gratification and satisfied self- 
righteousness ; here to cry aloud that men must 
flee from the wrath to come. Each Christian 
church building should be like a danger signal, 
a red light in the growing spiritual darkness. At 
the same time the Church should be an abiding 
invitation, calling out to the careless passerby, 



23 2 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

bidding him to enter by the open door of faith to 
find in the risen and living Christ the way of sal- 
vation which God Himself has provided. 

But some day, unknown to the world, and an 
equal surprise to the Church, the Lord unseen 
will descend into the upper air and through an 
opened door in Heaven, and at the sound of a 
trump, call the Church into the place prepared, 
close the door and shut His saints within, keep- 
ing them there above the coming storm. Seven 
years at least will pass. Ominous will be the 
silence of Heaven and derisory the laughter of 
men at the disappearance, not of a multitude, but 
of the relatively few. Seven years in which evil 
unrestrained shall head itself up in blasphemous 
mockery and open assault against God and His 
Christ. Then there will be a crash as when fly- 
ing worlds collide and foundations are destroyed. 
The heavens shall seem aflame, the earth on fire, 
and the Son of God shall be seen coming in the 
clouds of heaven with all His holy angels and all 
His saints to execute His long-waiting judgment 
upon the ungodly and the sinner. The flood of 
His pent-up wrath shall break and the earth 



I 



COMING OF CHRIST 233 

shall be swept clean of its stain of shame and 
guilt, the kingdom of righteousness shall be es- 
tablished and the Lord shall be King over all 
the earth. 

Thus the Coming of Christ will be twofold. 

Like Noah, the Church will be called of the 
Lord into the place prepared. After an interval, 
and as when the flood fell, the Lord will descend 
with all His saints to execute judgment and es- 
tablish righteousness in the earth. 

He will come for the Church and then with 
the Church. 

The story of Lot is equally suggestive. 

Lot is an historical fact and a typical and 
prophetic figure. 

He looked toward Sodom, pitched his tent to- 
ward Sodom, took office in Sodom, vexed his 
righteous soul with the filthy conversation of 
those who lived in Sodom and then lost his testi- 
mony in Sodom. 

The angels of God came suddenly one day as it 
drew on toward evening, laid hands on him as 
the night deepened and snatched him out of 
Sodom. In the morning as the dawn broke the 



234 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

fire out of Heaven fell upon the guilty, vice- 
laden and shame-stained city, consuming all that 
Lot with painful toil had accumulated and 
builded in Sodom. 

Lot represents that side of the professing 
Church which is bound up and identified with 
the world; that side of the Church which seeks 
to clean up, purify and make the world better; 
that side of the Church which is down on the 
ground, has ceased to be a pilgrim and a stranger 
in the earth, has become a dweller therein, is 
joining hands with the world to help it, to Chris- 
tianize it and make it acceptable to God; that 
side of the Church which has lost all spiritual 
testimony, fails to have the true vision of God, 
mixes flesh and spirit, law and grace, the right- 
eousness of man and the righteousness of God, 
enters into partnership with all secular ministra- 
tions, and forgetting that the judgment of God 
hangs as a suspended doom over the world, fan- 
cies that the world which slew a Christ and re- 
pudiates His Gospel can be lured into the king- 
dom of God by open and unhesitating appeals 
to the flesh. 



COMING OF CHRIST 23 5 

Everywhere you will find Churches whose 
buildings are filled with all instrumentalities 

for the culture of the flesh, gymnasia, swimming 
pools, reading rooms full of the latest novels, en- 
tertainment bureaus; church buildings which 
are headquarters for boy scouts, literary socie- 
ties, clubs, employment agencies; churches 
which seek through pleasing of the flesh to take 
away the offense of the Cross and by coordina- 
tion with the things of this world to lead men 
into accepting the antagonistic and flesh contra- 
dicting things of God. 

Lot represents that side of the Church which 
is endeavoring to build wood, hay and stubble on 
the foundation of Christ ; that side of the Church 
which is vexed every day with the increasing sin- 
fulness, mockery and materialism of the world 
and fools itself with the vain hope that by using 
worldly means, fleshly methods and "up-to-date" 
ideas it may make men friends of that God who 
through the lips of a chosen apostle has testified 
that they who are in the flesh, who walk in the 
flesh, who are governed by the very best and so- 



236 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

called sanest principles and practices of the flesh 
— ^^ cannot please God!' 

But suddenly the Lord will come. He will 
snatch the Church up out of the world. He will 
take even those who constitute the worldly side 
of the Church and like Lot have been spiritu- 
ally blind enough to think they could clean 
Sodom; they will be taken because if they be in 
truth and reality actually regenerate, with all 
their blindness and fleshly mixtures they are still 
in the bond of the covenant. He will take them 
out of the world and up to Himself. After that, 
after they have been clean snatched out of the 
world will the Lord sweep down as with the 
besom of destruction, overthrowing and destroy- 
ing not only all the art, the culture, the pride and 
refinement of the natural man, but all the or- 
ganized effort the Church has made to gild, to 
paint, to decorate and make attractive that lech- 
erous world whose sin and iniquity remain open 
to the gaze of Him with whom we have to do. 

Lot was saved out of Sodom by being burned 
outoi Sodom. 

He was saved ''so as by fire/' 



COMING OF CHRIST 23 7 

The Coming of Christ and the taking of the 
Church will be to some Christians like a dis- 
aster, it will be wrenching them loose from their 
rootage in the earth. They will be as those who 
are saved out of and through a great fire, but 
have had all their goods burned up. 

But mark it well! The Lord said He could 
do nothing till Lot himself should be come out 
of the city. He could not and would not burn it 
up till Lot was safe outside. 

Lot in Sodom was the only thing that stood be- 
tween Sodom and the fire of God. 

And here indeed is the amazing and certain 
truth : 

In spite of its inconsistencies and worldliness 
the Church is the only barrier between the world 
and the judgment — wrath of God. 

The Church is as the salt of the earth. It alone 
saves the world from utter corruption. It alone 
saves it from the downpour of the fire of God. 
The value of the salt, that which gives it pun- 
gency and power is the savor. The savor of the 
Church, the final deposit which makes it as salt 
is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, 



238 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

dwelling in the Church corporately, and in the 
truly regenerated portion of the Church, indi- 
vidually. 

After the Lord had caused Lot to be snatched 
out of Sodom the fire fell. After the Church 
shall be taken up to meet the Lord the judgment 
of God will fall. 

The action at Sodom was twofold. 

The Lord came on the mount and by angelic 
power took Lot out of Sodom. In the morning 
He came over Sodom and poured His judgments 
upon it, and poured them forth out of the full 
cup of His indignation. 

The Lord will come into the air for His 
Church; then, later on. He will come with His 
translated and ascended Church in judgment on 
the world. 

Joseph was rejected by his brethren, sold into 
Egypt, after various dramatic and providential 
experiences became coruler with the king, took 
to himself a Gentile wife, and brought her into 
his palace. Then famine, sorrow and bitter trib- 
ulation fell upon his father's house, upon the 
brethren who had so cruelly betrayed and sold 



COMING OF CHRIST 239 

him. After allowing them to suffer for a season 
the providential penalty of their blindness and 
sin and to endure a short but sharp tribulation, 
he took his wife, entered his chariot accompanied 
by his resplendent guards, revealed himself in 
all his fulness and royal dignity to his repentent 
brethren and established them in the land of 
Goshen, the land promised by the king, the 
promised land in Egypt. 

Joseph first took his wife into his palace, into 
the place prepared for her, took her to himself, 
and then came forth with her in the glory of his 
kingly splendor and established his brethren in 
the coveted land. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ was rejected by His 
brethren. They sold Him as Joseph's brethren 
sold him, into alien hands. For two thousand 
years he has been an exile from this world. God 
the Father has taken Him into associated ruler- 
ship with Himself upon the Heavenly throne. 
During these years of His exile He has been get- 
ting a bride from among the Gentiles. He is ob- 
taining that bride through the preaching of the 



240 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

Gospel and the quickening and convicting call 
of the Spirit. 

Some day He will descend into the region just 
above the confines of our earth. He will call the 
Church as His affianced bride (the dead raised, 
the living changed) into that star-set home He 
so long ago went to prepare. There His banner 
over her shall be love. When the Church goes 
from the earth the Lord's dealings with His 
brethren in the flesh will begin. Famine, sor- 
row, the anguish of the Great Tribulation shall 
come upon them (they will in the meantime have 
returned to their own land) . At a given moment 
He will come forth with His Church as His 
married wife. He will come forth in His 
chariot and surrounded by ten thousand times 
ten thousand chariots of glory. He will make 
Himself known to His brethren. They will re- 
pent at the sight of Him and own Him as their 
once rejected Lord. He will reveal Himself to 
them fully and establish them in the land which 
is theirs and His, the land of the covenant prom- 
ise, 



COMING OF CHRIST' 241 

The Coming of Christ is like that of Joseph. 
As Joseph sought his bride, came for her, then 
took her into his palace and afterward came with 
her in his glory, sharing it with her, so the Lord 
will come, first for His Church and then with 
her. 

The Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is illus- 
trated and avouched as twofold. 

Moses, like Joseph, took a Gentile wife. The 
Lord representing the law sought to slay him 
till his wife circumcised their son. When she 
had done this she called him her ^^bloody hus- 
band." 

Before Moses entered Egypt to execute the 
judgments of God upon Pharaoh and the land 
he sent his wife back and took her into the inn 
where she had been led to announce him as her 
bloody husband. An inn is the stopping place 
for pilgrims and travellers. When the judg- 
ments of God had been executed upon Egypt 
Moses came with his wife and the delivered 
Children of Israel to the Mount of God and the 
glory of the divine presence. 



242 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

Let it be noted, Moses first came for his wife, 
and then with her in the hour of deliverance and 
glory. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is to the Church, in- 
deed, a bloody husband, a husband by blood; 
but the blood is His own, the blood which He 
shed to deliver us from the penalty of death; 
and, at the same time, the blood by which He 
purchased us for His own. The blood of the 
Cross is the dowry which He has brought to the 
Church, the seal of His love for her, and the 
crimson seal of her union with Him. 

Before He descends to execute His judgments 
upon a gainsaying world ; before He descends to 
enter into judgment with and overthrow that 
anti-Christ of whom Pharaoh is the fitting type; 
before He flings His hardening judgments on the 
earth, He will call His Church up to meet Him. 
He will take her into the inn. He will take her 
up as one who was called to be a traveller, a pil- 
grim and a stranger in the earth. He will put 
her in the resting place He has prepared. Then, 
after He has executed His judgments and deliv- 
ered the elect remnant in Israel He will come 



COMING OF CHRIST 243 

with His Church to the Mount of God, even to 
the Mount of Olives, and thence to Mount Zion 
and reign gloriously ^^before His saints." 

The Coming of the Lord is twofold. 

The twofold Coming is set forth by symbols. 

It is symbolized by the coming of a thief. 

We know how a thief comes. 

He comes at even, between the dark of mid- 
night and the gray of morn. He comes with un- 
sandaled feet, silently, suddenly, softly. He 
comes while all are asleep, when no one is watch- 
ing. He comes to steal the treasure. The house- 
hold awakes in the morning. The thief has 
come. He has taken the treasure and is gone. 

So, between the midnight and the morn our 
Lord will come. He will come softly, silently, 
suddenly. He will come when none are thinking 
about Him. When all are asleep and wholly un- 
watching. He is coming to steal a treasure. He 
is coming to snatch away a pearl of great price 
and get that jewel of all jewels as His; but His 
so-called stealing is not stealing. He comes with 
the silence and the unwarning step of a thief; 
but He is coming to take His own. The pearl is 



24.A THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

the Church. It is 2i pearl oi great price. A price 
so great you have no values on earth with which 
to measure or compare it. There is a pearl lying 
down deep and buried in the slime of the under- 
tow and tangled weeds at the bottom of the sea. 
A man throws aside his garments. He divests 
himself. He leaps, he plunges into the far de- 
scending deeps, down and down. He lays his 
hand upon the imbedded pearl. He brings it up. 
There is no beauty in it. He gives it to the burn- 
isher. He spends his labor and artful care upon 
it. He sets it in a rim of gold. It flashes white 
and spotless, soft as incrusted moon light. It is 
fastened in the diadem of a king. It is worn on 
the day of his crowning. The price is put upon 
it. It had none itself as it lay there wrapped and 
stained and dull in the depths of the sea. The 
price of it is brought out of the down plunge of 
him who took his life into the dark under the 
swelling tide. The price of it is accumulated 
and made beyond measure by the place it holds 
in the diadem upon the king's brow. 
Such is the Church. 



COMING OF CHRIST 245 

As individual believers we contribute to and 
constitute the Church. Like the pearl we indi- 
vidually lay in the depths of the tide of sin. The 
Son of God disrobed Himself. He divested 
Himself of His form and appearing as God. He 
plunged downward and still downward into the 
depths until the billows of sin, your sin and mine, 
rolled over Him on the Cross. Then He found 
us. He laid hands upon us. He lifted us up. 
He has given us to the One who could polish us 
and make us gleam, the Holy Spirit. He has 
burnished us on the wheels and rims of circum- 
stance. We have in us and shining out of us a 
light that is as the moonlight. Moonlight is 
reflected sunlight. The light in us is the reflec- 
tion of Himself. We are His individually, but 
when massed and viewed together we form the 
pearl of great price. The price was put upon us. 
We had none in ourselves as we lay wrapped and 
stained and dull in the deeps of sin and the 
tangled ways of sin. The price at which we are 
valued was brought out of the down plunge of 
Him who took His life under the dark and swell- 
ing tide that rolled over Him on the Cross. We 



246 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

are the most costly things in the universe of God. 
We cost the heart-break of God, the agony, the 
blood and the death of God — even that God man- 
ifest in the flesh and nailed to the Cross for us. 
The price put upon us is cumulative and will 
find its excess which no adjective can qualify in 
that hour when He shall wear us forth as the 
perfect jewel of His perfect crown. 

Surely the Church is the pearl of great price. 

And He is coming to take that jewel out of the 
world. He will take it that He may wear it in 
the diadem of His glory. 

The world will awake and discover the Lord 
has come, taken the Church and gone. 

Then for the first time will a sordid world 
awake and arouse to the worth and value of the 
Church. 

The Coming of the Lord is symbolized by the 
lightning. 

Many years ago I was pastor of a church in 
the country, yonder amid the southern Penn- 
sylvania hills. It was a summer night, the night 
of a close and sultry day. The air grew heavier 
and the night blacker than any raven's wing. I 



COMING OF CHRIST 247 

drove steadily. As my horse's feet and the 
wheels of my light wagon echoed in the old- 
fashioned covered bridge spanning the river be- 
tween me and my home, the gathering storm 
broke. There was a flash of lightning which 
seemed to split the sky in half. In a moment I 
saw the hill top, every tree and rock. Through 
an opening in the side of the bridge I could see 
the stream leaping, dashing over rock and stone 
and like a frightened thing under the smiting and 
pelting of the rain and the crying of the winds, 
leaping again with greater bounds and breaking 
into whitest foam against the lower shore ; every 
detail was visible even to the rusty nails in the 
beams of the bridge. My horse cowered and 
sunk between the shafts. Then Heaven and 
earth seemed suddenly to come together in one 
deafening roar and multiplied echoing crash. 

Like that the Son of God will come. 

There will be the lighting down of His glory. 
It will illuminate the earth, not only the hills 
and vales, but will pour down the flood light of 
its revelation into the intent and purpose of every 
heart. 



248 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

He is coming as a thief comes, unawares and 
in the silent night, for His Church. 

He is coming as the lightning in the splendor 
and effulgence of His glory with His Church. 

The Coming of Christ is compared to the 
morning star and the rising sun. 

He Himself says He is the bright and morn- 
ing star. 

The prophet Malachi says He will arise as the 
sun of righteousness with healing in His wings. 

The star comes before sunrise. 

This year, as often before, while in the moun- 
tains I took occasion to watch the morning star, 
and near the hour of dawn. 

It hung suspended in the upper skies like a 
lamp of liquid light. Sometimes it seemed like 
a melting diamond, elongating and ready to 
drop. Anon, it was as though an angePs tear 
were ready to fall upon a world of tears. 

The mountains stood in dim and ghostly out- 
line. The road slipped by white and straight. 
In the distance I heard the bark of a dog and 
the clarion note of chanticleer. Then a human 



COMING OF CHRIST 



249 



figure passed swiftly on and was absorbed in the 
mysterious vagueness of the hour. 

It was a time of silence and waiting. 

Lower and lower sank the star as though an 
invisible hand were letting out instalments of an 
unseen chain, and then, suddenly, without warn- 
ing, it dropped behind the etched outline of the 
mountain's westernmost ridge. 

There remained a while of continued watch- 
ing. 

There was fascination in it. To wait and 
watch, still watch and note the Coming Change. 

Presently in the east a lifting as though the 
sky itself were rising in a strip of light. Then 
streams of light. Then arrows shooting upward 
to the zenith, arrows tipped as with flame of fire. 
After that as though an army with banners of 
crimson and amethyst and purple were rushing 
on in an assault of riotous color. Suddenly, a 
great rim of glowing, scintillating red gold 
against the sky's edge; and then steadily thrust- 
ing upward the wheel of the chariot of day and 
the sun ascending to his place to reign and rule. 



2 50 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

Now his beams were upon the eyelids and the 
laggards awoke — hut the star was gone. 

Our Lord is Coming as the star comes before 
the hour of sunrise, before the day breaks in its 
fulness. 

He is coming quietly and softly for His 
Church. 

Those who are His will ascend to meet Him. 

Then with them He will disappear from the 
region of the earth. 

But star rise is prelude to sunrise. As the sun 
in all His glory He will break upon the view. 
The light of His splendor will fill the earth. He 
will come to reign and rule, and all the earth 
shall behold Him in His majesty and might. 

He is coming for His Church. 

He will come with His Church. 

The twofold Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is illustrated in parable. 

It is illustrated in the parable of the Bride- 
groom and the Virgins. 

Ten virgins go out to meet the bridegroom. 
While he tarries they all fall asleep. At mid- 
night they are awakened by the warning cry that 



COMING OF CHRIST 2 5 1 

he is coming. Five of the virgins are without 
oil for their lamps which they find are going out. 
They can not borrow. They go to buy. While 
they are gone the bridegroom comes, and they 
that are ready go in with him to the marriage 
and the door is shut. In the morning the bride 
and bridegroom go forth to enter upon the bride- 
groom's domain and there to reign and rule over 
his servants. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming for His 
Church, not as a king to rule over her, but as the 
Bridegroom of her heart; as He who has loved 
her with an everlasting love from before the 
foundation of the earth. He is coming to take 
her as His Bride into the place prepared. Then, 
in the morning, in all the radiance and wonder 
of its dawning, He will come forth with her to 
reign and rule as King of kings and Lord of 
lords in the wide domain of His righteousness 
and truth. 

The twofold Coming of Christ is set forth in 
the Construction of Scripture. 

It is set forth in the twenty-fifth chapter of 
Matthew. 



252 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

In the first part of the chapter our Lord comes 
as a Bridegroom. 

In the second part He comes as a King. 

In the first part He comes to meet virgins. 

In the second part He comes to meet nations. 

In the first part He comes to a marriage cham- 
ber. 

In the second He comes to a judgment throne. 

In the first part He comes to be married. 

In the second He comes to execute judgment. 

In the first He comes at night. 

In the second He comes in the morning hour. 

The twofold Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is proclaimed by two distinct and specially in- 
spired words. 

The words are Greek words : Epiphaneia and 
Parousia. 

Parousia signifies, "presence." 

Epiphaneia is "manifestation." 

The two words may be found in a single text. 

"And then shall that wicked be revealed, 
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of 
his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness 
of his coming.'^ (2 Thessalonians 2:8.) 



COMING OF CHRIST 253 

The words "brightness" and "coming," are re- 
spectively, the words, Epiphaneia and Parousia. 

The verse therefore should be rendered : 

"Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit 
of His mouth, and shall destroy with the bright- 
ness or manifestation of His presence/' 

Before manifestation the presence is there, but 
unmanifested, unknown, secret. 

The Lord is coming down into the air for His 
Church. 

After an interval He will come down to the 
earth with His Church. 

His presence for the Church will not be mani- 
fested to the world. 

The world will no more see Him or be aware 
of His Coming for the Church than when He 
ascended from the Church at Olivet. 

When He comes with His Church, He will 
come in the clouds of Heaven. 

His presence will then be manifested to every 
eye. 

The two words selected by the Holy Spirit 
testify that the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus 



254 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

Christ while one great event is twofold in de- 
velopment. 

This twofold Coming of Christ is dynamically 
taught in the direct statement of Holy Scripture. 

In Saint Paul's first Epistle to the Thessalo- 
nians and in the fourth chapter he tells us the 
Lord is coming down into the air with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel and the trump of 
God; that the dead in Christ shall rise first, then 
the living who remain shall be caught up wdth 
them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And 
let it be noted and remembered well that this 
verb, ^'to meet," has in it the idea, not only of 
meeting, but returning; as though the Lord were 
on His way to the earth and the Church had gone 
up to meet Him halfway that she might come 
back with Him. 

If you will turn to the fourteenth chapter of 
the prophet Zechariah you will see that Jeru- 
salem is surrounded by Gentile armies, the city 
is taken, the houses rifled, the women ravished, 
half the population taken captive, the other 
half cut off from the city; then the Lord and 
all His saints suddenly descend from Heaven in 



COMING OF CHRIST 255 

manifested glory, overthrow the allied armies 
and the feet of the Lord stand on the Mount of 
Olives; and in order that we may see this Com- 
ing is not spiritual or symbolic, it is added that 
this Mount of Olives is on the east before Jeru- 
salem. 

Now it is evident the Lord must come down 
into the air before He can come to the Mount of 
Olives; and, as in his letter to the Thessalonians 
Paul represents the Lord as coming into the air 
for His Church, and the Church is seen going up 
into the air to meet Him with the idea of return- 
ing; and in his prophecy, Zechariah says the 
Lord is coming with all His saints to the Mount 
of Olives, it follows irresistibly that the Coming 
into the air for the Church precedes the Coming 
to the mount, and that this Coming to the mount 
is none other than Christ coming in manifested 
glory with His Church. 

The going up into the air to meet the Lord 
has nothing to do with the Jews, with Jerusalem 
nor the world, it has to do exclusively with the 
Church. 



256 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

The coming down to the mount has to do with 
the Jew, with Jerusalem and the Gentile world. 

Thus the apostle Paul and the prophet Zecha- 
riah testify the Second Coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ is twofold, and that the first part 
concerns only those who are in Christ; while the 
second part is unmistakably related to Israel and 
the world. 

In Saint Paul's Second Epistle to the Thessa- 
lonians and in the first chapter we learn the Lord 
is coming with all His angels in flaming fire to 
take vengeance on those who know not God and 
who obey not the Gospel. These are to be pun- 
ished with everlasting destruction from the pres- 
ence of God and the glory of His power, when 
He shall come to be glorified in His saints. 

This latter expression as italicized is in the 
future tense ; but it is the subjunctive aorist and 
should read: 

''When He shall have come to be glorified in 
His saints." 

That is to say, the Lord will not be revealed 
with His angels in flaming fire and taking venge- 



COMING OF CHRIST 257 

ance till after He has come and has been glori- 
fied in His saints. 

He must come and be glorified in His saints 
before He can be revealed in the glory of His 
angels. 

There is one supreme way only in which He 
can come and be glorified in His saints, and that 
is, when He comes to raise the dead who died in 
His name and transfigure the living. 

And this Coming and glorification is described 
in the fourth chapter of the First Thessalonians 
where the Lord descends into the air to meet His 
Church. Thus in his second epistle Paul elabor- 
ates the first and teaches in unquestionable clear- 
ness that the Coming of the Lord is twofold. 

The twofold Coming is announced in the sec- 
ond chapter of the Second Thessalonians where 
the Apostle in the first part of the chapter be- 
seeches them by the Coming of the Lord (the 
word '^coming'' here is parousia) and by our 
gathering together unto Him. 

This is his definition of, and inspired termi- 
nology concerning, the Second Coming as pre- 



258 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

sented in the fourth chapter of the First Thessa- 
lonians. 

According to this inspired definition the Com- 
ing of Christ for His Church is His unmani- 
fested presence to the world in the air; and the 
going up of the Church to meet Him is, OUR 
GATHERING TOGETHER UNTO HiM." 

^^Our gathering together unto Him/' is there- 
fore the Scriptural and inspired title of the first 
part of our Lord's Second Coming. 

In the latter part of the chapter the apostle 
announces the Lord is coming to overthrow the 
man of sin, the son of perdition. He will con- 
sume him with the spirit of His mouth and de- 
stroy him with the brightness (manifestation) of 
His Coming (presence). 

This Coming to overthrow the man of sin is 
then after the Church shall have been gathered 
up into the air to meet Him, and coincides with 
that Coming of which Zechariah speaks when he 
declares the Lord shall come with all His saints. 

Thus the Coming of Christ is twofold. It has 
two distinct parts. 



COMING OF CHRIST 259 

In the first part He comes into the air and the 
Church is caught up to meet Him. 

In the second part He comes with the Church 
to overthrow Anti-Christ and set up His king- 
dom. 

The twofold Coming of Christ is finally dem- 
onstrated and proved by the scenic construc- 
tion and dramatic illustration of the book of 
Revelation. 

In the fourth chapter John is caught up at the 
sound of a trumpet-like voice through an open 
door in Heaven. Immediately he beholds twen- 
ty-four elders clothed in priestly garments, with 
crowns upon their heads and seated on thrones. 

In the fifth chapter the Lord is seen as a lamb 
who had been slain, but is now risen from the 
dead. He is seen in Heaven as the Son of David 
and as David's Lord, as the King of the Jews. 

He takes a seven-sealed book, His title deed to 
the kingdom in Israel and likewise to the king- 
doms of the world. Each of the sealed portions 
of the book contains a section of judgments to 
be executed on the earth before He comes forth 
to take His kingdom. These judgments are in- 



26o THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

tended to cleanse the kingdom, the area of the 
kingdom, and take out of it all iniquity, all things 
which offend. The twenty-four elders sing a tri- 
umphant song when He takes the book, declare 
He has a right to take it and break the seals, 
because He had been slain, by His blood had 
redeemed them out of every nation, people, 
kindred and tongue, had made them priests and 
kings unto God, and they should reign on the 
earth. 

John is a figure of the true Church caught up 
to Heaven to meet the Lord when He shall de- 
scend into the air with His trumpet-like voice. 

The twenty-four elders represent the trans- 
figuration and enthronement of the Church as a 
body of kings and priests. The twenty-four 
elders singing the song of redemption and rule 
represent the Church getting ready to come 
forth with the risen Christ when He shall have 
broken the seals and begun His hardening judg- 
ments on the earth. 

From the fourth to the fifth chapters inclusive 
you have a picture of the first part of our Lord's 



COMING OF CHRIST 261 

return and its effect upon the Church after it has 
been translated to Heaven. 

From the fourth chapter to the nineteenth, the 
Church is not once seen on the earth. 

From the fifth chapter to the nineteenth you 
have a picture of what will take place on the 
earth after the Church has been removed to 
Heaven. Hardening judgments are sent from 
the hand of God. Anti-Christ and his wild-beast 
kingdom are set up and run their course. 
Heaven and earth are full of tumult. It is a 
time of hell on earth. It is a time when all men's 
hearts are failing them for fear. It is a time 
when fear and the pit take hold on all. 

Then in the nineteenth chapter there is the 
sound of marriage bells. The Church as a Bride 
makes herself ready for the marriage ceremony; 
she clothes herself in the beautiful, white byssus 
worth its weight in gold. 

The invitations are sent out to the marriage 
supper. 

The marvellous marriage takes place. 

The indescribable marriage supper is on. 



262 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

The door in Heaven is again opened and the 
Lord Himself comes forth as a man of war rid- 
ing the steed of His immaculate judgment. 

He comes forth as the undisputed and supreme 
Word of the living God. 

He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. 

He is followed by the Church as an army of 
horsemen. 

Nor is this transformation surpVising. 

The Church is like a chameleon. 

She changes her color to suit her Lord. 

When He is the Rejected One she walks on 
earth as a stranger and a pilgrim awaiting His 
return. 

When He is a Bridegroom, she is a Bride. 

When He is King, she is a Queen. 

When He is a warrior, she is an army of war- 
riors. 

When He comes forth to judge, she comes 
forth as His associate in judgment. 

When He is unmanifested in Heaven, she is 
unmanifested and hidden with Him. 

When He is revealed in glory, she is revealed 
in glory with Him. 



COMING OF CHRIST 263 

Thus the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is twofold. 

He comes for His Church. 

He comes with His Church. 

And this twofold Coming is set forth in Scrip- 
ture from the first book, Genesis, to the last book. 
Revelation. 

The doctrine of the twofold Coming of Christ 
is an inhering and integral part of the very fibre 
and constitution of the Bible. 

II. The Coming of Christ for His Church is 
secret and imminent. 

It is secret. 

The taking away of Enoch was secret. 

The world knew nothing about it till he was 
gone. 

The taking of Noah into the ark was secret. 

The people went on eating and drinking, mar- 
rying and giving in marriage and knew not till 
the day Noah and his family entered into the 
ark. 

The snatching of Lot out of Sodom was secret. 

The Sodomites ate and drank and bought and 



264 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

sold and planted and got much gain, till the day 
Lot went out of the city. 

They did not know he was gone till the rain of 
fire and brimstone came down and destroyed 
them all. 

The taking of Asenath, Joseph's wife, into the 
palace with him was secret, was altogether un- 
known to his brethren till he came forth with her 
in the chariot of glory. 

The entrance of Zip p or ah, Moses' wife to the 
inn was secret. It was not known or revealed 
till after she had entered there. 

The Coming of the Lord as a thief in the night 
corroborates the personal and parabolic types. 

The Coming of the Lord for His Church is 
not open, but secret. 

He Himself says to the Church : 

"I will come on thee (arrive over thee) as a 
thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will 
come upon thee (arrive over thee)." (Revela- 
tion 3 13.) 

After He has warned His disciples that His 
Coming will be as it was in the days of Noah, 
He says : 



COMING OF CHRIST 265 

^'Watch therefore ; for ye know not what hour 
your Lord doth come." 

I do not know what hour the Lord will come. 

You do not know what hour the Lord will 
come. 

The Christian who presumes to fix the hour 
and set the date contradicts the Lord Himself; 
but striking as the Lord's statement is and posi- 
tive as is His assurance that no one knows when 
He will return, the force and impact of the 
warning lies in the exhortation to watch. 

The meaning of that is so clear and simple that 
he who runs may read. 

It meant to those disciples to whom He spoke 
that after He should go to Heaven and His Fa- 
ther's throne His return would be so uncertain 
and withal so imminent they should be constantly 
in the attitude of expectation and readiness. 

As they did not know what hour, so far as they 
were concerned, it might have been any hour. 
As an hour is made up of moments and no mo- 
ment was designated, it might have been — any 
moment. 



266 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

Our Lord's exhortation to the disciples there- 
fore meant, and cannot mean anything less, that 
they were to be in a state of expectation and 
readiness every moment. 

In the parable of the householder who went 
away leaving his house in the care of servants and 
the porter telling them that he was coming back 
in a day unknown to them, that he might in 
the day he did return come in any one of the four 
watches, at even, at midnight, at cock-crowing 
or in the morning, and thus increased and em- 
phasized the uncertainty of his return, our Lord 
ends by applying the parable and bidding His 
disciples to watch for His own return after He 
should be gone into Heaven, adding an exhor- 
tation which insistently applies to the Church 
and Christians now. He says : 

"What I say unto you, I say unto all^ WATCH." 

We, as Christians, as well as the early dis- 
ciples, are taught that the return of the Lord to 
His house, the Church, is uncertain as to the day 
or the time of the day; and since it might be in 
any one of the four watches or hours of the day, 



COMING OF CHRIST 267 

might be aay watch or hour of the day and, there- 
fore, any moment of any hour. 

The exhortation of the Lord and its present 
and inevitable application is the headquarters 
and indisputable demonstration that His Com- 
ing always has been and is now imminent. 

In his First Epistle to the Corinthians the 
apostle Paul exhorts Christians to recognize that 
they have not come behind in any gift while 
waiting for the Lord; they have been equipped 
and made ready for that event as an imminent 
possibility in their daily lives; and while it is 
true the Coming here signifies the appearing, 
as that appearing is inclusive of the Coming 
of the Lord for His Church and cannot take 
place till He does so come, the exhortation is of 
itself a demonstration and a proof that the Com- 
ing of the Lord for the Church was then and is 
now — imminent. 

In the fifteenth chapter of his First Epistle to 
the Corinthians the apostle affirms the Lord 
is coming, that the dead in Christ shall arise, 
and the living be changed. In those who should 
be "living" when the Lord should come he in- 



268 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

eluded himself as having expected the Lord 
might come in his day. He says : 

''We shall not all sleep (die) but we shall all 
be changed." 

It is his declaration that there will be a genera- 
tion of Christians alive in the earth when the 
Lord comes and that this generation might be 
the generation of any day, this day as of any day. 

In his Second Epistle to the same Church he 
announces his absolute confidence should he die, 
if his body like a tent habitation should be taken 
down he would still have a house, a building not 
made with hands, a dwelling place in Heaven 
which death could neither invade nor touch; 
but he does not want to die. He does not want 
his body to be removed and himself, even for a 
moment, remain a naked spirit, a disembodied 
soul. He wants the Lord to come while he is 
alive and to change him, transform his mortal 
body and clothe him with His heavenly and im- 
mortal body. 

Paul says all this because, according to his 
testimony, he believes the Lord might come in 
his day, might come any time and save him from 



COMING OF CHRIST 269 

dying, from the worm, from corruption and the 
grave. 

Paul teaches the Coming of Christ for His 
saints was imminent in that day. 

To the Church at Philippi he writes that he is 
sometimes weary, the chain of his Roman im- 
prisonment weighs heavily upon him. He has 
been used of God to make saints even in Caesar's 
household ; but, he longs to depart and be with 
Christ which he is assured would be, ^'far bet- 
ter;" to remain, however, and still witness for the 
Lord he sees clearly enough is his prime duty. 
He realizes therefore that he ought not to be 
wishing for death and thus longing to lay the 
Christian armour down. As a consequence in 
the third chapter and at the close of it we find 
him saying he is a citizen of a country which 
is in Heaven. He is no longer yearning for 
death nor expecting it. With clear vision he sees 
the Lord is Coming. He is waiting for that 
Coming. He is waiting for the Lord to come as 
the Saviour of his body. He is expecting Him 
at any time and according to His measureless 
power to change this mortal body, this body of 



270 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

limitation and humiliation and fashion it like 
unto His own body of immortality and glory. 

Every word he writes combines to utter and 
proclaim the immense fact that in the hour when 
he wrote the letter he with the rest of the Church 
looked upon the Coming of the Lord as immi- 
nent. 

He writes to the Church at Thessalonica, the 
first inspired epistle he ever wrote. In this letter 
he commends the Christians of that Church, not 
only because they had turned to God from idols 
to serve the living and true God, but because they 
were waiting (expecting) the risen Son of God 
who had delivered them from the wrath to come, 
to descend from Heaven and take them to Him- 
self. 

He tells those who were sorrowing over their 
dead, those who had fallen asleep in Christ, not 
to sorrow as others who had no hope, because 
the Lord was Coming. He would come down 
into the air and even before He should manifest 
His power upon the living He would raise the 
Christian dead. Then he says the living should 
be changed and both the risen and the trans- 



COMING OF CHRIST 271 

figured be caught up together and meet (and 
necessarily know one another) in the Lord's 
presence. In saying all this he uses the simple 
but tremendously significant words : 

^^We which are alive, and remain unto the 
Coming of the Lordf^ 

It would be impossible to state in any more 
forceful or dynamic way the apostle's belief that 
he might not die; that in all probability he 
would continue to live till the Lord should come ; 
and as he fixed no date nor time nor season — it 
might be any day. 

If this language and attitude do not mean im- 
minency; and if he does not involve the whole 
Church in the same attitude of expected immi- 
nency, then the language of the apostle Paul 
may as well be repudiated as having any capacity 
for intelligent meaning. 

In writing to these same Thessalonian Chris- 
tians he sincerely prays the entire spirit, soul 
and body of each may be preserved blameless 
unto the Coming of the Lord. 

In no stronger, more absolutely positive way 
could the Apostle put himself on record as pray- 



272 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

ing that not one of them should die till the Lord 
should come. 

He writes to Titus that the Coming of the 
Lord is the ^^Blessed Hope;" and that the grace 
of God teaches us as Christians to be expecting 
it while we live. 

Take up and reflect upon this startling state- 
ment of his. 

This is what he says : , 

^^The grace of God that bringeth salvation 
hath appeared to all men, 

"Teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and 
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, right- 
eously, and godly, in this present world; 

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glori- 
ous appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ." 

Grace teaching us how to live, and as the cul- 
mination of that grace-taught life, to be looking 
that is, expecting the Lord to come while we live. 

If this is not imminency and if we are not 
here taught that this attitude of expectancy is 
bequeathed as the gift and teaching of grace to 
the Church through all ages even to the present 



COMING OF CHRIST 273 

hour, then the language of the New Testament 
is a compound collocation of trifling and mean- 
ingless phrases. 

Paul writes to the Hebrew Christians to re- 
member Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement; 
and just as the Israelites after the sacrifice were 
waiting and expecting the chosen man who had 
led away the scapegoat to come back without the 
sin-offering unto their complete and full, typi- 
cal salvation, so they should be waiting and ex- 
pecting the Lord to return as one who had dis- 
charged their sins and cast them behind His 
back. 

This is the testimony of the apostle Paul, an 
unbroken testimony that the Coming of the Lord 
was imminent in his day and, therefore, since he 
was writing to the Church for all time, imminent 
in our day. 

James declares the Coming of the Lord draw- 
eth nigh. He is even at the door. He is standing 
there as judge. The time has come for judgment 
to begin at the House of God before it begins 
upon the world. Should the door open and the 
Lord come, the Church would find itself face to 



274 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

face with the judgment seat where Christians 
must answer, not for salvation, but for the stew- 
ardship of salvation. 

The Lord Himself is the supreme witness of 
His own imminency. 

He bids the apostle John write a letter which 
He Himself dictates to the Church at Sardis, 
and which He bids all the Churches to hear as 
the message of the Holy Ghost for this age. 

He says: 

^^If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will ar- 
rive over thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know 
what hour I will arrive over thee.'' 

In this He says to the Church at Sardis, and to 
the Church in the world everywhere to-day: 

''I am coming. There is not a predicted event 
between us. My coming is so imminent, the only 
safe attitude for you to take is to be waiting and 
watching for me." 

Later on He exhorts them to hold fast because 
He is not only coming at an unexpected moment, 
but coming so quickly, when He does come, that 
should they be found wanting in such a moment 



COMING OF CHRIST 275 

He would take from them the crown promised 
to the faithful. 

In the midst of further revelation given to 
John who is then in Patmos for His sake, He de- 
clares abruptly that He is coming as a thief and 
warns those who profess His name to keep their 
garments lest coming suddenly He should find 
them sleeping, snatch away their garments and 
put them to shame in all their nakedness. 

In the temple there were nightly guards. 
They wore a special robe which indicated their 
place and function. The robe was therefore the 
profession they made as temple guards. They 
had a captain over them. He was liable in any 
one of the night watches to come forth and in- 
spect them. When he found any one asleep upon 
his post he quietly removed his garment. When 
the sleeper awoke and went forth all saw his 
shame. 

As Christians we have been put on guard. We 
are to keep the faith once for all delivered to the 
saints. We make profession of the name of 
Christ. The Lord who is the Captain of our sal- 
vation may come at any time. There is no calen- 



276 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

dar in which His Coming is dated or fixed. 
Those who have made a profession of His name 
and nothing more; who have no real, indwell- 
ing, spiritual life; who at the most have been 
merely ''church members," professors and not 
possessors, will be left behind. Their repudia- 
tion will be the stripping off of their garments of 
profession. They will be put to shame before all 
eyes. 

The Lord's exhortation to hold on to the gar- 
ment lest He should come and snatch it away is a 
startling and clear emphasis of His imminency. 

The book of Revelation closes with the cli- 
macteric demonstrations and proof that the Com- 
ing of the Lord for the Church is always immi- 
nent. In the closing lines of this book our Lord 
gives His last message to the Church. 

He says the Spirit is asking Him to come from 
Heaven. 

He says the Bride (the truly regenerated por- 
tion of the professing Church) is asking Him 
to Come. 

He commands those who have heard that He 
is to come the Second time to lift up the voice of 
prayer and invite Him to come. 



COMING OF CHRIST 277 

Then He gives this last message to the Church, 
a startling and amazing message. 

Listen to it well! 

Here are the very last words sent down by the 
risen Lord to the Church : 

''Surely I come quickly." 

By these words He says to the Church: 

''The next thing is My Coming." 

"The thing for which you are to wait, the 
thing which you are to be expecting, and for 
which you are to be every day ready, is the next 
thing/' 

"The next thing for the Church, the thing that 
is always next and nearest and therefore possible 
at any moment is — My Coming/' 

Thus from Heaven with all the authority of 
infallible utterance and all the solemnity of last 
words, the Risen Son of God declares His Sec- 
ond Coming is the thing next and nearest to the 
Church, and thus proclaims as headquarters, as 
indisputable and undebatable, truth that His 
Coming is imminent and will always be immi- 
nent till He actually does come. 



278 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

The Bible therefore closes with the divinely 
Authorized doctrine of — 

The Imminency of the Second Coming. 

And it so closes with the preceding and warn- 
ing words of the Son of God Himself that should 
any one seek to take away this doctrine now 
written into and imbedded in the book, he will 
do so at the peril of having his part taken out of 
the book of life. 

It is no light thing to deny the imminency of 
the Lord's Coming. 

He who does so jauntily and carelessly does so 
at fearful peril. 

He denies that which the Lord declares lies 
most weightily upon His own heart; and that to 
which He wishes the Church to respond with 
expectant faith and fervent prayer. 

He who denies imminency takes a risk con- 
cerning which the Lord has clearly warned. 

Let it be repeated then, the Bible closes with 
the doctrine of — 

The Imminency of the Second Coming. 

But — if, as some do not hesitate to teach, He 
is not to come for a thousand years after the 



COMING OF CHRIST 279 

world is converted why should the Holy Ghost 
ask Him to come; why should the Church in its 
best estate ask Him to come; why should I or 
any individual Christian pray for Him to come? 

If He cannot come till nineteen twenty-five or 
nineteen fifty, as some teachers who are wise 
above what is written affirm, why should you or 
I pray for Him to come? If certain fixed events 
must take place before He can come for the 
Church why should any of us insist that He 
should come? 

On any other ground than imminency such 
attitude and prayer would be idle mockery and 
worthless mummery. 

Nay! if the language of Scripture does not 
teach the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to be 
imminent; if the statement that He is Coming 
as a thief; that the hour is unknown; that He 
will come when the Church is not expecting 
Him; if the exhortation to wait, to expect, to 
watch, to be ready; if the expression, ^Ve who 
are alive and remain unto the Coming of the 
Lord;" if the clear and explicit statement of the 
Lord Himself, His disciples and apostles do not 



2 Bo THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

mean imminency and are not to be accepted by 
the Church as teaching imminency, then lan- 
guage is meaningless, words are a confusion, all 
promise is a lie and Scripture, instead of being a 
revelation, is a misrepresentation, a bundle of 
childish incoherencies, or devil-inspired fool- 
eries. 

If Jesus Christ and His apostles do not teach 
His imminent Coming, then He and His dis- 
ciples were the most mistaken of all men, or of 
all men most guilty of insincerity and deception. 
If they were mistaken in one respect they might 
have been mistaken in others. If they were in- 
sincere, they were cool and predeterminate de- 
ceivers and both the Lord and His disciples must 
be completely and forever set aside. 

In the nature of the case, seeing the Lord is 
very and essential truth itself, and what His dis- 
ciples and apostles said were the inspiration of 
the truth He gave them, no conclusion as to the 
insincerity or intent of deception on the part of 
the Lord and His disciples can be accepted for a 
moment. On the contrary, the statement and ex- 



COMING OF CHRIST 281 

hortation of the Lord and His apostles must be 
accepted as absolute, and infallible truth. 

The Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ must 
therefore be received as a promised and always 
imminent event. 

To this fully proclaimed and overwhelmingly 
demonstrated and proved Scriptural doctrine of 
imminency, it is objected that our Lord revealed 
to Peter that he should die, and some years later 
appeared in a vision to Paul, assuring him he 
should go to Rome and there testify in His name. 

Since Peter was to die before the Lord should 
come, and a future experience of Paul must be 
fulfilled before the Lord could come, these two 
announcements ought to be sufficient, so it is said, 
to prove that neither in Peter's day nor in Paul's 
day was the Coming of the Lord imminent. 
This flat contradiction, and by the Lord Him- 
self, removes this doctrine of imminency and all 
attempts at the construing of Christ's Coming 
as such from the field, not only of acceptance, but 
even of consideration. 

The answer to this subtle suggestion is simple 
and direct. 



282 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

The statement to Peter and the commission 
to Paul contain within them an unexpressed hut 
well understood contingency. 

That contingency is, always, the Lord's Com- 
ing. 

Nor is this begging the question by mere asser- 
tion, or by impracticable and unwarranted prin- 
ciple of action. Go down the streets of the city 
to-morrow. You will find them packed with the 
thronging crowds. Every man, every woman 
there has a plan or some degree of intent and 
purpose. You yourselves here have plans for to- 
morrow or next summer, or it may be ten years 
from now. But you have no guarantee of to- 
morrow. You do not know what a day may 
bring forth. Give you a week! What do you 
know about a week? In less than that time you 
may die, be buried out of sight and forgotten by 
the hurrying crowd. David said there was but 
a step betwixt him and death. He told the truth. 
It is true of you. God has only to withdraw His 
finger from your pulse, your heart stops, you are 
gone and all your to-morrow's plans fall out of 
your dead hand, break to pieces and are blown 



COMING OF CHRIST 283 

away as when so much dust is blown by careless 
winds. By every law of your body, by the sen- 
tence that is upon you, by your helplessness to 
avoid the ruthless germ, the unexpected blow, 
death is always imminent for you and human 
kind. And yet plans for the building of houses 
are taken out, journeys are planned, trips over 
mountains and across the seas. You say, and peo- 
ple say, ^'I expect to go here and go there. I ex- 
pect to do this and do that." All the time the 
contingency of death is understood. We shall do 
certain things. We shall go into certain places. 
We shall take certain journeys — // we do not die. 

That is understood all over the world and by 
every human being. 

That is a contingency which remains as a silent 
understood factor in every detail and plan of 
life. 

This principle of understood contingency is 
illustrated in the message of the Lord to Jonah 
and in the subsequent result of that message. 

The prophet was commanded to announce to 
the idolatrous city that in forty days it should be 



284 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

destroyed. Jonah delivered the warning in clear 
and unmistakable terms, as it is written : 

''He cried, and said. Yet forty days, and Nine- 
veh shall he destroyed." 

But more than forty days passed and Nineveh 
was not destroyed. 

Nineveh was not destroyed because the people 
repented and turned to the Lord. And this fact 
of repentance was a contingency foreseen and in- 
wrought as an inclusive part of the Lord's state- 
ment that Nineveh should be destroyed. 

Like the contingency of death, like the con- 
tingency of repentance as noted, the Second 
Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is an abiding 
contingency. Since it is a proclaimed immi- 
nence it is always an interior and understood 
contingency, lying back of, and ready as a factor 
in, every circumstance, every planned and pro- 
claimed event. 

Peter would die and Paul would go to Rome 
— // the Lord did not come. 

This Coming was always possible. It was pos- 
sible at the moment when Peter faced death. It 
was possible when Paul contemplated Rome, 



COMING OF CHRIST 285 

The Coming of the Lord is an everyday con- 
tingency — as much so as death, and more so. 
More so because by divine inspiration the Apos- 
tle has said, ^We shall not all sleep (die)." 
Because there will be one generation of Chris- 
tians who shall not die ; one generation of Chris- 
tians who shall continue to live till the Lord 
comes. 

Between us and the appearing of Christ in 
glory there are many predicted events, events 
which concern the Jew and the nations of the 
Gentiles, and not the Church. 

Between us and the Coming of the Lord into 
the air for His Church there is not a single pre- 
dicted event which is not contingent on that 
Coming. 

Because the hour and the moment have not 
been set before the Church what the Lord has 
said unto one of His disciples He has said and is 
now saying to all: 

^Watch." 

And every letter of that word and every accent 
of the sincerity of the Son of God spells and em- 
phasizes the all impressive and appealing word : 

^'Imminency/' 



2 86 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

III. As a Church we are to wait and he ready 
for the secret and imminent Coming of the Lord. 

The twofold motto of the true Church of 
Christ is — 

'To Serve and Wait." 

'Te turned to God from idols, to SERVE the 
living and true God ; 

And TO WAIT FOR HIS SON FROM HEAVEN."" ( I 
Thessalonians i : 9, 10.) 

And because we are to serve and wait; be- 
cause the Lord may come any hour, any moment 
to take an account of our service and to examine 
into the sincerity of our waiting, He bids us to 
be ready. 

'Therefore be ye also READY: for in such an 
hour as YE THINK NOT, the Son of man cometh/' 
(Matthew 24: 44.) 

We are to be ready! 

That means — 

JVe must make our calling and election sure! 

We can neither elect nor call ourselves; but 
we can be sure that we have been called and 
elected by bringing forth those things which 
"accompany salvation." 



COMING OF CHRIST 287 

We must come out and be separate from the 
world. 

The world we are living in is a world under 
judgment, it is a world taking its breath and 
thinking of its pleasures under a suspended sen- 
tence, suspended only by the grace of God; but 
a world for all that steadily marching each hour 
to certain doom. As Christians we should come 
out of it, come out of it as a system, nor touch the 
unclean thing lest the stain of it be on us irre- 
vocably. We should keep out of it as Abraham 
kept out of Sodom, lest we be mixed up with it 
as Lot was with Sodom and like Lot be saved at 
last (if saved at all) only so as by fire. 

We must establish character as spiritual, and 
not fleshly, people. 

They that are in the flesh cannot please God. 

If we live in the Spirit we are to walk in the 
Spirit. 

In this the children of God are to be made 
manifest. 

The children of the flesh walk according to the 
course of this world and God is not in all their 
thoughts. 



288 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

The Christian is to walk under spiritual im- 
pulse, with outward and upward look, joying in 
God and ready with heart unafraid to meet the 
Lord at any turn in the road. 

As Christians we are to walk as children of the 
light and children of the day. 

We are not to sleep as others do. We are to 
watch and be sober. We are to put off the night 
clothes and put on the day clothes, even the 
armour of light, even the whole armour of God. 
We are to put on the breast-plate of faith and 
love, and for an helmet^ the hope of salvation 
(the ^^blessed" hope that the Lord may come any 
moment to "save" the bodies of the saints, raising 
the dead and changing the living) . We are to 
put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no pro- 
vision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. 

We must be full of service. 

As Christians we are here to serve. 

In proportion as we serve here we shall reign 
hereafter. 

We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to 
Him who bought and paid for us. 



COMING OF CHRIST 289 

We cannot afford to neglect our spiritual gifts 
nor waste our time; for both gifts and time are 
His. 

We shall have to give an account to the Lord 
how we have used our time, whether for Him or 
for self first: how we have used our substance, 
whether for our own pleasure, or to magnify 
His name. 

It is necessary, indeed, that we should be 
ready, because those who are mere professors, 
who are as unprepared as foolish virgins, will be 
left behind. 

It is necessary because the Coming of the Lord 
for His Church means the judgment seat. 

Are you ready as a professed Christian to be 
summoned any moment to the judgment seat of 
Christ? 

At the judgment seat of Christ you will either 
receive a reward or suffer loss. 

Your place in the kingdom of Christ will de- 
pend on the degree of your readiness when you 
stand at the judgment seat to give an account of 
yourself and not another. 



290 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

The imminency of our Lord's return is empha- 
sized by the ''signs of the times." 

The signs of the times primarily have nothing 
to do with the Church. 

The signs of the times are related to the Ap- 
pearing of Christ. 

The signs of the times indicate that the day of 
Christ's appearing is drawing nigh. 

Signs in the Protestant Church. 

Every day Protestantism is losing its solidarity 
in respect to the things of God. 

Every day there is a new sect, a new schism, a 
new psalm or a new doctrine. 

More and more every day there is the reign of 
unbelief, unspirituality and undisguised infi- 
delity. 

Signs in the Romish Church. 

Steadily and with unbroken ranks Rome is 
marching on to temporal sovereignty and that 
hour when she shall be carried and sustained by 
the nations of the earth. 

Signs in the increase and extension of travel. 

It was foretold that in the closing hours of this 
age the means of communication among men 



COMING OF CHRIST 291 

should be multiplied and the multitudes should 
come and go. 

Within the last fifty years the means of travel 
have been enormously increased. We sail over 
the seas at railroad speed. We rush across the 
land on tracks of steel and with lightning im- 
pulse. With constructions like winged monsters 
we fly up and through the astonished sky. 
Everybody travels. The whole world is in com- 
motion, interchanging and moving its popula- 
tions to and fro till the earth has become like a 
seething ant-hill. The globe has become so small 
that time and space are nullified. 

Signs in the increase of human knowledge. 

It was foretold that coincidently with travel 
knowledge should increase. 

Children are wiser to-day in some things in 
science and the application of science than men 
of a generation ago. Everybody reads, and in 
the morning newspapers the doings of a whole 
world lie gathered and sifted in a single para- 
graph. 

Signs in the nations of the once Roman empire. 



292 THE SECRET AND IMMINENT 

Amid the nations which to-day are the frag- 
ments of the once Roman empire, the war so 
long threatened, so clearly foreseen by some, 
and so blindly unforeseen and disbelieved in by 
others, is on. The map is changing. The ten 
kings are coming and that eleventh king who is 
the Devil's madman and the man of sin. 

The sign of the clay. 

Clay represents the people and the rule of the 
people — Democracy, 

The prophet Daniel foretold that clay (de- 
mocracy) would be the last material in the 
prophetic image; that democracy would be the 
last form of rule just before the Lord should 
come to set up His kingdom of stone. Democ- 
racy is here. It is expanding in Europe, in Asia. 
Out of it will come the ten kings, kings elected 
by the people, democratic kings. 

The hour of iron and clay is here. 

Signs among the Jews, 

Whether they know it or not, they are, nation- 
ally, homeward bound; as the exiled King is 
about to return, the exiled nation of itself is get- 



COMING OF CHRIST 293 

ting ready to meet Him, to repent at the sight 
of Him and own Him as God and King. 

And because all these signs indicate infallibly 
that the time is drawing nigh for Christ to ap- 
pear in glory to take to Himself His great power 
and reign; and because He must come secretly 
and unobserved of the world for His Church 
before He can come with her in glory, it is evi- 
dent, immensely and overwhelmingly evident 
that the imminency of His descent into the upper 
air and the call to His elect Church to meet Him 
there is startlingly and arousingly emphasized, 
and should impel every Christian to be awake 
and ready. 

^^What I say unto you, I say unto all, WATCH." 

For you who are unsaved there is only one 

place of shelter, and that is under the blood of 

the Cross. Claim that blood I pray you before 

it may be too late. 



V 

THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 



The Judgment Seat of Christ. 

My theme to-night is the Judgment Seat of 
Christ. 

I have selected eight texts : 

(Revelation 22:12. Romans 14:10. 12. 2 
Corinthians 5:10. i Corinthians 4:5. Mat- 
thew 25:21. I Corinthians 3: 15. Revelation 
3:11. James 5:9.) 

Together these texts read: 

"And behold, I come quickly; and my re- 
ward is with me, to give every man as his work 
shall be." 

"For we shall all stand before the judgment 
seat of Christ." 

"So then every one of us shall give an account 
of himself to God." 

"That every one may receive the things done 
in his body, according to that he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad." 

"Therefore judge nothing before the time, 
until the Lord come, who both will bring to 
light the hidden things of darkness, and will 



298 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and 
then shall every man have praise of God." 

^Well done, thou good and faithful servant; 
thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will 
make thee ruler over many things; enter thou 
into the joy of thy Lord." 

"If any man's work (any Christian's work) 
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he him- 
self shall be saved; yet so as by fire." 

"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast 
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." 

"Behold the judge standeth at the door." 

Before presenting the theme I shall give as 
briefly as possible an exposition of the Bible 
doctrine of judgment. I shall then lay down 
certain propositions to prove that our Lord 
Jesus Christ is coming to take the Church to 
His judgment seat and that Christians will there 
be tried not for life and salvation but for work 
and service as Christians. The Lord will reveal 
Himself as judge. Each Christian will have to 
render a personal account of himself. Those 
who have been faithful in service will take part 
in the joy of the Lord. Those who have failed to 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 299 

meet the standard will suffer loss. The immi- 
nency of the judgment is indicated by the fact 
that the Lord is represented standing before the 
door ready to judge. 

The Bible is a book of judgments. These 
judgments are manifold and recorded in fullest 
detail. Some are immediate and brief. There 
are others extending in their course over a thou- 
sand years. 

There are four great and distinctive judg- 
ments. 

The judgment of the cross. 

The cross was neither the place nor the act of 
a suicide. It was not a martyrdom. It was 
something more than a brutal murder (though 
murder and brutal it was) . It was a judgment. 

It was the judgment of God against man. 

It was God's judgment against man's nature 
as well as deeds. It was God's judgment against 
the world considered as a system. 

On that cross God was judging Christ His 
Son as the representative of the natural man and 
his system called the world. 

From the beginning God had been pursuing 



300 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

sin. At the cross He came up with it and over- 
took it in the personal representation of it by 
His Son. 

He dealt with Him there as very sin, as the 
Great Criminal of the Universe. 

All the essential as well as governmental an- 
tagonism of God to sin swept forth and broke 
like a descending deluge upon that perfect and 
sinless Son. Speaking anticipatively of this hour 
the Lord Himself by the Spirit through David 
cries out: 

^^All thy waves and thy billows are gone over 
mer 

And again through David He cries: 

"Mine iniquities (the iniquities of those whom 
He represented and whose iniquities He made 
His own) have taken hold on me, so that I am 
not able to look up ; they are more than the hairs 
of mine head." 

By the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, look- 
ing forward and entering into the ordained an- 
guish of the cross. He pours forth the soul-stir- 
ring and pathetic lamentation of His heart: 

"Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? be- 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 301 

hold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto 
my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith 
the Lord (the Father) hath afflicted me in the 
day of his fierce anger,'* 

Out from the midst of that black tempest of 
wrath, indignation, and judgment where He 
suffers in the name and as the representative of 
sinful men, suddenly there comes the amazing 
cry: 

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
mer 

That uttered agony expresses a fact and fore- 
tells a condition. 

The fact is, the sinless, holy, perfect Son of 
God and God the Son, the Son who from all 
eternity was in the bosom of the Father, the Son 
who in the flesh He assumed for the Father's 
glory, told Him out and ceaselessly magnified 
Him, that Son in that hour upon the cross was 
forsaken of the Father, the Father turned His 
back upon Him, hid His face from Him and left 
Him in the sunless, starless midnight of a com- 
plete and infinite repudiation; withdrew from 
Him every manifestation of His Fatherly love, 



302 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

left Him to sink under and be swallowed up by 
the endless, measureless billows of wrath in 
which every surge of every wave was a deeper 
and ever deeper drowning agony of helpless and 
hopeless despair. 

The condition foretold by that cry which rent 
the earth, echoed to the farthest reach of the 
universe and pierced with pain the heart of lis- 
tening angels is the condition of every soul for- 
saken at last of God. 

A fact and a condition ! 

The fact — that all who have not received the 
salvation bought at this fearful price of the cross 
will be forsaken. 

The condition — agony, agony uttered and ex- 
pressed in one eternally repeated and eternally 
unanswered question, ''My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me?" 

The aspect of the judgment of the cross is two- 
fold. 

Because the death of Christ met the law, the 
government and the being of God, it has ob- 
tained a stay in proceedings against the indi- 
vidual sinner. 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 303 

Because that cross is the demonstration of the 
unimpeachable righteousness of God, it has en- 
abled Him to bring the world upon mercy 
ground where He can deal with it in grace, 
justify the ungodly and still be just. The cross 
has set Christ before the world as the sacrifice 
for sin provided of God, and as the substitute 
the sinner is invited of God to claim. 

The moment any sinner be he never so stained, 
so sunken and hopeless in sin offers up Christ on 
the cross by faith as his sacrifice for sin and 
claims Him as his personal substitute, as having 
taken his place and suffered for Him, that mo- 
ment the Father accepts the death of the cross 
for the believing sinner, counts him to have 
died in the person of His Son, counts the wrath 
which fell upon the Son as having fallen on the 
believer, reckons the believer's sins as fully trans- 
ferred to the Son (so that He is made sin for the 
believer) reckons that the righteousness of 
Christ's obedience unto death is freely trans- 
ferred to the believer, sees the believer as having 
passed through the judgment with Christ on the 
cross, justifies him before the demands of the 



304 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

law and accepts him as His own very righteous- 
ness in His now risen, ascended, glorified and 
priestly Son. 

On the basis of this divine and exact justifica- 
tion the Son of God in His office and function as 
the Second Adam, the New Head of the race, 
communicates of His own life and nature to the 
justified and accepted believer. That believer 
has passed out of death into life. He is one with 
God in Christ. He is eternally saved. He 
has been delivered and saved by the judgment 
of the cross. 

So complete, so ample and so immediately 
available is this provided salvation that to-night, 
at this present moment any individual sinner 
here though he be as black as hell's deepest dark- 
ness and no man on earth be willing to lend him 
a hand, if he will in child-like simplicity take 
God at His Word, claim the crucified Christ as 
his sacrificial substitute, say believingly in his 
inmost soul as though he talked face to face with 
God, "Almighty and Holy Lord, I ought to be 
eternally ruined, swept out of Thy presence and 
denied every joy, death, endless, hopeless is my 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 305 

due ; but I claim Thy Son hanging on that cross 
for such as I, accept all the judgments that fell 
on Him as having fallen on me and as having 
satisfied for every claim against me. Count His 
agony and damnation as mine and as completely 
and finally suffered there." Let any sinner here 
say that, mean that in honest, claiming faith and 
God will accept you, accept you quicker than the 
flash of a second. He will brush away every 
cloud of condemnation that hangs above you. 
You shall never stand at the judgment bar of 
doom. You shall be saved now and safe forever 
more. 

This is the judgment of the cross and the sal- 
vation it brings. 

The Judgment Seat of Christ, 

This is the judgment next in order. I shall 
speak of it later on and in full detail. 

The third in order is. 

The Judgment of the Living Nations. 

This will take place when the Lord descends 
in glory to the Mount of Olives ; as it is written : 

^When the Son of Man shall come in his 
glory, and the holy angels with him, then shall 



3o6 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

he Sit Upon the throne of his glory; and before 
him shall be gathered all nations" (Matthew 
25:31-46). 

That this throne will be at Jerusalem is the 
declaration of the prophet: "At that time they 
shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord : and 
all the nations shall be gathered unto it" (Jere- 
miah 3: 17). 

The nations gathered before Him will be the 
ten nations of the revived Roman empire under 
the last Kaiser, the demonized, Devil-led anti- 
Christ. 

The nations will be living and gathered as 
armies under his leadership, against Jerusalem; 
as it is written : 

"I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to 
battle" (Zechariah 14:2). 

Under no circumstance, nor in any way is it a 
resurrection judgment. There is no thought nor 
suggestion of resurrection in the scene. 

The basis of judgment will be the treatment 
by these nations of the Lord's brethren in the 
flesh — the Jews. 

After the Church has been removed from the 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 307 

earth the Lord will send out elect and believing 
Jews who will testify that the Messiah, the true 
King is coming. It will be the Gospel, not of 
grace as it is in this hour, but the Gospel of the 
Kingdom. Many of these heralds will be im- 
prisoned, some of them will suffer hunger and 
thirst and nakedness. If among the gathered 
armies in this hour of judgment any may be 
found who had dealt kindly with them as oc- 
casion offered, gave them food or raiment, took 
them in, treated them with hospitality or visited 
them in their confinement and need, the Lord 
will count it as having been rendered to Himself 
and will permit such men to remain and live in 
the kingdom He is about to set up. 

Those who have maltreated these Jews shall 
die before the Lord even as the rest in the armies 
shall die. They shall melt away while they 
stand upon their feet; as it is written: 

"Their flesh shall consume away while they 
stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall con- 
sume away in their holes, and their tongue shall 
consume away in their mouth'^ (Zechariah 14: 

n)- 



3o8 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

The Judgment of the Great White Throne. 

This will be revealed a thousand years later, 
at the end of the Kingdom on its earthly and 
time side. 

At that judgment throne the Christless dead 
of all ages shall be raised and stand; as it is 
written : 

"And I saw a great white throne, and him 
that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the 
heaven fled away: and there was found no place 
for them, 

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
before God; and the books were opened; and 
another book was opened, which is the book of 
life: and the dead were judged out of those 
things which were written in the books, accord- 
ing to their works. 

"And the sea gave up the dead which were in 
it; and death and hell (hades) delivered up the 
dead which were in them : and they were judged 
every man according to their works" (Rev. 20: 

11-13)- 
The dead, small and great, the high and the 

low, the rich and the poor^ the king who sat on 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 309 

his throne and the slave who served in his hall, 
the open and out-breaking sinner and the sinner 
secret and unknown, the worst and the best — 
Out of Christ shall be there. 

They will be judged according to the standard 
of God in every age : by His handiwork in the 
heavens as the star written and nightly rebuke 
to idolaters; by the moral law which was in- 
tended to reveal the immoral helplessness of man 
and his need of a regenerating God ; by the cere- 
monial law which proclaimed the way of re- 
demption by blood and spelled the name of a 
Coming Christ in every offered sacrifice, in the 
death of every substitute victim ; by conscience 
which leads men to accuse and excuse them- 
selves and thus on the one side emphasize the 
demand of the moral law and on the other to 
confess, even unconsciously, that they have failed 
and sinned ; by the Gospel which invites men to 
the way of salvation revealed in the cross ; and 
by their deeds recorded and indelibly stamped 
upon the soul. 

In all that motley throng not one shall be 
saved. 



310 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

All will die a second time. 

The second death is, constitutionally, the same 
as the first — separation of soul and body. As the 
soul does not cease to exist in the first death 
neither will it cease to exist in the second death. 
The body will be destroyed in fire. The soul 
will continue; as there is no resurrection after 
the second death the soul will continue in a dis- 
embodied state shut out from God, a wandering 
human derelict tossed on the measureless waves 
of eternity and drifting through the darkness of 
its endless night forever. 

This is the final and Great White Throne 
judgment and its unspeakable consequences to 
all who shall be called to stand there. 

I shall now consider and expound the Judg- 
ment Seat of Christ. In doing so I shall lay 
down certain propositions. 

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming to trans- 
late the Church to heaven, take His place upon 
the Judgment Seat and enter into personal ex- 
amination of each Christian. 

2. At the Judgment Seat of Christ the Chris- 
tian will not be judged in respect to life and sal- 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 311 

vation, but exclusively for work and service as 
a Christian. 

3. At this Judgment Seat our Lord Jesus 
Christ will reveal Himself as very God, and 
each Christian will have to give a faithful and 
intimate account of himself or herself to Him. 

4. The Christian who at that Judgment Seat 
is judged and determined as faithful shall re- 
ceive a reward. He will be permitted to share 
in the joy of the Lord, 

5. The Christian who shall not be found faith- 
ful will suffer loss. He cannot enter into the joy 
of the Lord. 

6. The Judgment Seat of Christ will have a 
two-fold consummation — the judgment of the 
Christian and the judgment of the nations. 

7. Christ as judge is already imminently be- 
fore the door of the Church. 

It is evident no man can preach from eight 
texts and talk in sixthlys and seventhlys and hope 
to be eloquent. The most to which it may be 
possible for him to attain is to be informing and 
instructive. I desire to be both. 

I shall therefore take up the first proposition: 



312 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

I. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Coming to trans- 
late the Church to Heaven, take His place upon 
the Judgment Seat and enter into personal ex- 
amination of each Christian. 

This Judgment Seat of Christ comes in be- 
tween the judgment of the cross upon the one 
side and the judgment of the nations upon the 
other. It will take place at the Coming of the 
Lord into the air /or His Church. 

I have told you in previous sermons that our 
Lord Jesus Christ is coming in glory. 

He is coming in the glory of the Father — as 
His Son. 

He is coming in the glory of the angels — as 
their Master, 

He is coming in His own glory — as God the 
Son. 

It will be the Coming in which He shall judge 
the nations at Jerusalem. 

All the heavens shall be filled with His glory. 

It shall be as though they were aflame with 
His Majesty. 

The earth shall own His Coming. The seas 
shall lift up their voices. The concourse of on- 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 313 

looking worlds shall fling down their wreaths of 
hallelujahs and intone the exultant and trium- 
phant "All Hail" ; but as already told you, before 
He comes in glory, before He is visible to an as- 
tonished earth He will come into the upper air 
for His Church as suddenly, as unwarningly as 
the lightning's flash; as secretly^ softly and si- 
lently as a thief in the dead of night. He will 
call up the Church to meet Him, not the great, 
outward professing body calling itself the 
Church (so calling itself from Apostate Roman- 
ism and infidelic Protestantism through all the 
various offshoots, Unitarianism, Universalism, 
Emmanuelism, New Thought, and Christian 
Science) , but those, rather, who are genuinely the 
Lord's; those who have been made partakers 
of the divine nature; who are indwelt by the 
Holy Ghost and are one in life and purpose with 
the Lord. He will call these. He will raise the 
dead who have fallen asleep in His name. He 
will transfigure the living. He will take them 
into the place He went to prepare two thousand 
years ago, into the third heaven, into paradise, 
into the city four square, the city of the jasper 



314 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

wall, the golden street, the wide-flung gates of 
pearl and the river of crystal, the free flowing 
river of life. There He will set up His Judg- 
ment Seat and require a personal accounting 
from each Christian. 

II. At the Judgment Seat of Christ the Chris- 
tian will not be judged in respect to life and sal- 
vation, but exclusively for work and service as a 
Christian, 

And this in the nature of the case, 

Primarily, because the death of Christ has 
met the judgment originally due the believer. 
When the believer claimed the death of Christ 
as his sacrifice for sin and claimed Him as a 
personal substitute the believer was at once de- 
livered from his standing and place as a sinner 
under doom of forfeited life, accepted as not 
guilty, justified and reckoned as righteous in 
the righteousness of Christ and in Christ as his 
actual righteousness; that is to say, he received 
not only an imputed but, imparted righteousness. 

So clear and clean is this transaction between 
the believer and a once-crucified Christ that 
were I with other believers at this moment sum- 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 315 

moned to that Judgment Seat, did justice ap- 
pear before me with a naked sword and in stern 
and merciless tones say unto me that my life 
was a sinful failure, or infraction of divine law, 
and that I must pay what I owed with my life, 
that rightly and fittingly I deserved to be bani- 
ished from God and the glory of His presence 
forever I would turn and point to that great 
crimson blot uplifted on a cross between two 
thieves and I should say: 

"O Justice, as much as you know of all the sin 
in my nature, all the sin I am and all the sin I 
have done, I know it too; but, Justice, yonder 
on the cross I was judged, punished, executed 
and done to death in the person of my substitute, 
the substitute whom the infinite and Almighty 
God Himself provided. I have paid all the 
debt I owe to the law, the government and the 
being of God. I have not fallen short in one 
jot or tittle of the law's demand. I have paid 
to the last element of my being every thing the 
conscience of God could require. God has not 
winked at any debt I owe or have partially paid. 
He has required it all. He has got it all, and He 



3i6 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

got it all in my substitute, in every drop of blood 
His Son, my Substitute, shed for me. The con- 
science of God is satisfied concerning me and my 
conscience is at rest in the satisfied conscience of 
Godr 

I would say that, 

When I said that Justice would sheathe the 
double-edged and gleaming sword and turn 
away. 

No matter who you are, worst or best of men 
the moment you turn and claim the crucified Son 
of God as your sacrificial substitute you are safe. 
Safe because Justice cannot demand payment 
twice, once from your surety and then from you. 

But, that Christians cannot be judged for sal- 
vation at the Judgment Seat of Christ is cor- 
roboratively demonstrated and proved by the im- 
mense and indisputable fact that when they are 
there it will be in their glorified, immortal 
bodies, bodies whose very immortality will be 
the seal they have passed out of alienship and 
condemnation into sonship and fellowship with 
God forever. 

For, let me repeat what I so often say, "irn- 



rHE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 317 

mortality" does not apply to the soul. There is 
no such thing correctly speaking as an "immor- 
tal soul." No such term can be found in Holy 
Scripture; nor is such a thing in the nature of 
the case possible, since the soul is immaterial, 
and immortality has to do with that which is 
material. In saying the soul is not immortal and 
that the word is never so applied, it is not in- 
tended to suggest even in the most remote pos- 
sibility that the soul could ever cease to exist. 
This is not true. The death of the body does 
not touch it, makes no essential impression on 
it. You may kill the body, you cannot kill the 
soul. Once created the soul continues and will 
continue forever. The words "immortal," and 
"immortality" in Scripture are applied only to 
the body and signify a deathless, incorruptible 
body. A deathless and incorruptible body be- 
longs only to the sons of God saved with an ever- 
lasting salvation and wholly beyond the possi- 
bility of any judgment for life or denth. 

The Christian will not be judged for salvation 
at all, but for work and service done down here 
as a saved person in the name of Christ. 



3i8 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

As Christians we are not saved by works. 

You might be the best person who ever walked 
the earth. No mortal being might be able to 
bring a charge against you. All the shadows 
might be under your feet. You may be free 
from any arraigning footstep of the past, but if 
you do not believe in Jesus Christ, if you do not 
accept Him by faith as your personal Substitute 
you are lost, hopelessly and forever lost. You 
are lost under inherited nature of sin and origi- 
nal condemnation passed upon all; for, by one 
man sin entered the world and death by sin, and 
so death passed upon all men. The worst man 
on God's earth who does not believe on Jesus 
Christ is lost and the best man on God's earth 
who does not believe on Jesus Christ is lost. 
Added to this, if when you hear the Gospel you 
do not immediately own the estimate of God 
concerning you and accept His Son as your only 
Saviour, you violate a command given to all, be- 
come a sinner if never before, and vitiate any 
work no matter how good you may seek to offer 
to the Lord. You cannot be saved by anything 
you do. You cannot buy salvation by anything 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 319 

you give. It is wholly on the basis of the fin- 
ished and accepted work of the cross and can be 
received only by simple and surrendering faith 
in Jesus Christ. In no wise, in any direction, nor 
under any circumstances can you be saved by 
good works ; as it is irrevocably written : 

^'Not of works, lest any man should boast/' 

We receive salvation through faith by and 
because of the unconditional grace of God. 

We receive it as a gift, pure and simple. 

We receive it by faith and nothing more. 

As saved persons we are as much witnesses to 
omnipotence as the widespread creation about 
us. God and God alone could and did save us. 
If in any fashion we respond to and own Him 
as our Lord and God, it is because He fashioned 
the way by which we might be brought into 
union with Him and has wrought the work 
which gave our souls the impetus toward Him. 

"It is he that hath made us, and not we our- 
selves ; we are his people, and the sheep of his 
pasture." 

And again it is written: 

"We are his workmanship created in Christ 
Jesus." 



320 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

I like to take up that word "workmanship," 
and repeat it again and again; for, that word 
means, literally, "poems." 

Old Horace in his song of the Alban hills and 
the fair Sabinian farm never wrote such hexa- 
meters as the living Spirit has wrought in having 
wrought us. God intended us who are Chris- 
tians to be full of measured, syllabic, songful 
harmony, the revelations of divinest grace and 
infinite perfections. 

The Greek called anything that had harmony 
and unity of form a poem. A statue, a work of 
art of any sort, a temple, a perfect piece of liter- 
ature even though it were the straitest prose, was 
a poem. The gold and ivory statue from the 
hand of Phidias was a poem. The Parthenon 
dismantled and in sorrowful ruin as it is to-day 
is, nevertheless, the fragment of a poem in stone. 

God created us as Christians to be poems, to 
be beautiful in all the terms and forms of spir- 
itual life, of living faith and in every word and 
thought to bear witness to the hand of grace and 
love which has so wondrously and unerringly 
wrought us. 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 321 

Let it be remembered! let it never be forgot- 
ten! We have done nothing as Christians to save 
ourselves. God has done it all. The work of 
salvation is all His and none of ours, and though 
the natural man lived the whitest life and lived 
it a thousand years without a single mistake 
nothing he could do, nor any character he might 
establish of morality and truth would avail to 
save him — Salvation is not and never can be 
by any work that man can do. 

But while it is true that we as Christians have 
done no work, nor could do any that would save 
us, we have been saved that we might do good 
works; as it is written: 

"Created in Christ Jesus unto good works 
which God hath before ordained that we should 
walk in them." 

"What wilt Thou have me to do?" was Paul's 
first question. 

It is typical, suggestive and all revealing. 

We are here, as Christians, for service, we are 
here to take the place of witnesses. 

There are many Christians who imagine if 
they just live what they call the Christian life 



322 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

and never say a word about Christ they are effi- 
ciently and satisfactorily witnessing for Him. 

It is a great and grievous mistake. 

Before all else we must speak of Him. 

Our lips must give clear and vibrant testi- 
mony concerning Him. We must tell about the 
death of the cross. We must talk of the empty 
grave, of a risen, ascended and Coming Lord; 
we must assure those about us that there is a 
present salvation in His name and we must be 
clear and strong to say there is none other name 
under heaven given among men whereby we 
must be saved. 

This is what the early disciples did. 

This is what Paul did. 

Think of him going into the synagogues 
every Sabbath day and testifying to the Jews out 
of their own Scriptures that Christ must needs 
suffer, die and be raised again and that this Jesus 
whom he preached unto them was Christ. 

Look at him going yonder to Athens, the city 
of culture, of intellectual power, of artistic re- 
finement, and not only in the synagogue but in 
the market place, as Socrates before him hailing 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 323 

the passers-by, arresting their attention and talk- 
ing to them of Jesus and the resurrection until 
moved profoundly the very philosophers hailed 
him to the Areopagus that they might the more 
fully know of his doctrine. 

What a record he leaves in Corinth where his 
eyes even as he spoke could look upon Parnassus 
and the Castalian Spring; but where, turning 
his back upon any temptation to preach with 
^'enticing words of man's wisdom," he set the 
Gospel of the Crucified before them in "demon- 
stration of the Spirit and of power." 

Surely in all history nothing is more dramatic 
nor more appealing than the scene *in Herod's 
judgment hall at Caesarea where with manacled 
hands and guarded by Roman soldiers he stands 
before the dissolute king and his beautiful para- 
mour, speaking with unfaltering lips and divine 
passion to the astounded and brilliant throng of 
that Christ of God whom blinded Jews had hung 
upon a tree; whom God had raised from the 
dead and set Him at His own right hand in the 
heaven far above all principalities and powers, 
higher than the heavens as the Redeemer and 



324 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

Saviour, not only of Jew but Gentile also, even 
the very Romans before him; and speaking in 
such fashion, with such deep set convictions and 
consciousness of truth that he wrenched from 
the lips of Agrippa himself the involuntary cry, 
"Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." 

Not only Paul, not only the called apostles 
spoke, but Christians in the quiet of private life. 
Wherever they went and in whatsoever occupa- 
tion engaged mind and heart were full of the 
wondrous truth that God had so loved the world 
He gave His only begotten Son to die for 
men. The light from an open grave so flashed 
upon them that they could not hide it in the dark 
of silence. Their hearts were so full of the won- 
der, the glory and the benediction of a risen 
Lord that out of the abundance thereof their 
lips spoke with gladness the joyful tidings. 

Testifying of Christ with the tongue, that is 
the function of the Christian. This dispensation 
began with tongues. Pentecost was the risen 
Lord's declaration that He would have His dis- 
ciples go forth and tell the story of His death 
and resurrection. 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 325 

This is the function of every Christian, to talk 
of Christ, not the Christ who lived and walked 
among men and blessed them merely, but Christ 
crucified, Christ th^ sacrifice for sin, Christ the 
substitute for the sinner, Christ risen, glorified, 
the present Saviour of every believing sinner. 

You need not wait for the preacher to tell it. 
You can tell it. This is your obligation as a wit- 
ness. 

But a witness must have a character. 

A witness whose character is not good is of no 
avail. He may tell the truth, but his testimony 
does not count. Yonder is a man on the witness 
stand. He has told the truth, the exact truth in 
the case, nothing less and nothing more than the 
absolute truth ; but if the attorney who is against 
him is keen enough he will summon those who 
will declare this witness is not to be believed 
upon his oath ; that his reputation for dishonesty 
is widely known, he can be bought and sold. Let 
him do this and the testimony of that witness 
will be ruined, the jury will pay no heed to it. 

A Christian who lives an inconsistent life, 
whose speech is full of unbelief, of doubt or 



326 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

worldliness, carelessness and open sin; a Chris- 
tian who continually does things no Christian 
ought to do and who goes where a faithful and 
devoted Christian ought never to go, becomes 
sooner or later in so far as the world outside goes 
a worthless witness. No matter how much truth 
he may tell, nor how well and earnestly he may 
tell it, the world will not believe him; they look 
upon him as a fakir, a hypocrite, an unworthy 
betrayer of the Lord whose name he wears. 

In order to be an efficient witness for Christ 
so that our testimony shall have a hearing and 
the work of the Spirit be unhindered, we are 
under bonds as Christians to build up individual 
character, a character that shall verify what 
we profess and preach. 

And do you think this is an easy matter? an 
easy thing in this world, here in this city where 
ten thousand forces are seeking to drag you from 
the path of Christian consistency and faith, and 
when the coordinate and resisting power of evil 
and unbelief come from within yourself. 

You never know what depths of sin and wick- 
edness of hell are in your nature till you turn 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 327 

and start to walk the path that leads to God and 
Christ, the path that is paved with righteousness 
and truth, but bordered with grinning fiends or 
smiling serpents who stretch out hands to help 
the traitor in your soul; a path in which some 
times the Devil meets you arrayed as an angel 
of light and in the name of righteousness seeks 
to guide your feet into the way of enticing sin. 

I have had earnest genuine Christians come to 
me filled with heart-aches and lamentation. I 
have had them say to me, ^^We never knew what 
sinful and perverse natures we had till we tried 
to serve the Lord." 

You cannot escape from that nature. Like 
Saint Anthony you may flee from the city and 
hide in the cave, but sin and shame and Devil 
and beautiful wantonness will be there in vision 
of a thousand-fold quickened imagination with 
whispered word and pictured form to tempt, to 
fool and lead you all unwillingly astray. 

I say to you it is a fight, a battle fierce in 
which all the powers of darkness will rise up 
within you and about you to pull you down and 
away. Neither by tongue of orator nor pen of 



328 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

logician could the jM/>^r-naturalness, the abso- 
lute divinity and Heaven birth of Christianity 
be more overwhelmingly and unanswerably 
demonstrated than by this upheaval of evil and 
wicked antagonism and this internal revolt of 
human nature in the regenerated Child of 
God. To live the Christ life, the life of spir- 
ituality and heavenward aspiration, to say "no" 
to material appetite, to rebuke passion, offer love 
for hate, purity for impurity and unselfishness 
for selfishness; in short, the dethronement of the 
flesh and the enthronement of the Spirit, surely 
this is not natural, it is not of man nor of earth, 
but of Heaven and God alone. 

If you are a Christian this is the conflict into 
which you are called and this is your work, to 
meet assault and resist, to go forward, fight the 
good fight of faith and to win. The supernatu- 
ral life must be uppermost in you; as it is 
written : 

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not 
war after the flesh: 

" (For the weapons of our warfare are not car- 
nal, but mighty through God to the pulling 
down of strongholds.) 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 329 

"Casting down imaginations, and every high 
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge 
of God, and bringing into captivity every 
thought to the obedience of Christ." 

This is a part of our function, if we would be 
faithful and truthful witnesses for Christ, to so 
live that we win for Christ and Christ wins for 
Himself in us in the life we live. 

As Christians we are each one of us called to 
be good "ministers" of Christ. But ministering 
in its true sense means serving others in the 
name of Christ. We are to minister to the 
saints, to look after the "household of faith," to 
visit the sick and the fatherless in their affliction, 
to take care of the needy, comfort the troubled, 
build up and strengthen the faith of others. 

We are to give of our substance. 

Do you imagine that God prospers any of us 
in this world that we may wholly spend our sub- 
stance on ourselves? The only time I recall 
the Son of God applied the epithet "fool" 
to any one was when he spoke of the man who 
laid up treasure for himself and ^^was not rich 
toward God;" so He said was every one like 



330 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

him who made his own life the deposit of his 
wealth and had nothing for God — a very fool, a 
fool of fools. 

Again and again God pours the sunshine of 
prosperity upon Christians. In spite of their 
mistakes, their blunders and follies He com- 
bines ways and circumstances over which they 
have no control and brings them unexpected 
comfort and blessing, — comfort and blessing 
they never could have obtained if left to their 
own efforts. And then, when after repeated 
warnings, a little touch of disaster here, a loss 
there, they still refuse to be great hearts and lib- 
eral with Him, He causes their riches to take 
wings and fly away. 

I have said to you the Son of God never wasted 
a moment of His time. He was no idler finding 
a place of rest in some unoccupied and empty 
moment. No ! I assure you, No. It was there- 
fore not idleness nor loitering of curiosity which 
led Him to take His seat one day in the temple 
where He could look at the great chest with its 
trumpet-like mouth into which the people put 
their contributions, their offerings unto God. 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 331 

That He should sit there and watch and carefully 
note how the people gave, the manner of their 
giving; that He should do this so that the record 
of His observation has been written in all the 
languages of earth, that the rich gave of their 
abundance wihout an element of sacrifice and 
that a poor widow gave only a mite, giving it out 
of her deep poverty, but gave all that she had ; 
and that the mite in His mind outweighed in 
moral value the whole sum of what the rich had 
given; this stopping aside to view and com- 
ment on the attitude of the people to the treasury 
in the temple is the clearest and most definite 
testimony He could make of the interest He 
feels to-day in the spirit and manner in which 
Christians hold their substance from His hand, 
how far they feel it to be their privilege as well 
as obligation to deny themselves and be liberal 
and rich with Him. 

The matter of giving is at bottom a moral and 
spiritual test. 

Many Christians count it no sacrifice to give 
largely for that which gives them the return of 
satisfaction, of personal comfort or ioy. They 



33^ THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

Spend it on themselves, considering self always 
first, giving self the benefit of lavish expenditure 
and economizing on God. 

The Christian who refuses to give to the " r j, 
who holds back on the plea of economy bears wit- 
ness that his heart is not right with God and that 
his appreciation of the salvation which for a 
while robbed heaven of its glory, goes no greater 
length than the lip which professes what the 
heart does not feel. 

We are here as the stewards of God. We are 
here to give liberally and that liberality is meas- 
ured not alone by the amount but by the impulse 
of the heart, the quickness of the hand and the 
spirit in which the gift is made. 

We are here to win souls for Christ, to bring 
them to Him that He may save them. As of old 
wherever He came they sought out the sick, the 
lame, the blind, the leper and the halt that they 
might but touch the hem of His garment and be 
healed, we likewise are to seek the sin sick, the 
spiritually blind, the morally paralyzed, the so- 
cial leper, those who are undone and lost and 
bring them with the hands of faith and prayer 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 333 

and lay them at His feet. We are to speak the 
simple word and tell them to touch Him with 
the touch of faith, to believe and "only believe" 
and they shall be saved. 

We are to speak this word of hope and invita- 
tion on the street corner, in the seat of cars, in 
the ofRce, in the store, wherever and whenever 
the door of opportunity is opened by the Lord. 
A word spoken in season how good it is. It is 
like apples of gold in pictures of silver. 

We are here as Christians to do whatever 
our hand finds to do. We are to do it with all 
our might, for the night cometh when no man 
can work. We are here to mean business for 
God, and we shall be examined at the Judgment 
Seat of Christ for the way in which we have en- 
deavored to fill our mission as Christians. 

It is for this we shall appear at the Judg- 
ment Seat of Christ. 

III. At this Judgment Seat our Lord will 
reveal Himself as very God and each Christian 
will have to give a faithful and intimate account 
of himself or herself to Him as such. 

From all eternity He was God, God the Son 



334 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

and God the Word. From all eternity He was 
in the ^^form" of God, and therefore the visibil- 
ity, the outgoing and forth putting of God; so 
that a prophet writes : 

"Whose goings forth have been from of old, 
from everlasting/' 

He was ever the utterance of the eternal si- 
lence as He had been the revelation of the eter- 
nally unseen. He was the commanding energy 
which vocalized creation and sent the universe 
upon its course. By Him were all things made, 
and without Him, apart from Him, was not one 
thing made that was made. He is and was the 
reason of all tliliigs. By Him all things were 
and are upheld. In Him all things subsist. He 
was and is the accent of Godhead. The Father 
originates, the Spirit executes, but the Son trans- 
lates the will and the purpose of Godhead. In- 
carnation was one of His mightiest acts. 

As Son He took of the seed of a virgin woman 
and created a human nature, a nature consisting 
of spirit, soul and body. He united this nature 
to His unchangeable, eternal personality. Thus 
constituted He had two natures distinctly human 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OE CHRIST 22S 

and divine in one body and one person forever. 
In this embodied humanity He walked the earth 
God manifest in the flesh, serving the Father un- 
failingly as His eternal Son and yet, always, as 
actual man, real man and true God. 

He was a man among men, eating and drink- 
ing with publicans and sinners, showing forth 
His interest in and compassion for men ; and yet, 
there were times when the deity in Him revealed 
itself unconsciously through the thin texture of 
His spotless flesh. If as God He lived in hu- 
manity, as God He died in that humanity. By 
virtue of His humanity as God He was able to 
know and understand humanity. By virtue of 
His humanity He was able to taste the bitter 
draught of death for man. 

Only God can atone to God; but as the atone- 
ment is in behalf of man it must be by man. 
Therefore although He was God He became 
man that through His death as man He might 
atone as God for man. 

As God and man He rose from the dead. As 
God and man He ascended to heaven. As God 
and man He took His seat upon the thronq 



336 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

-where at the Father's right hand He had sat from 
all eternity, clothed Himself with the glory He 
had had with Him before the world was and sits 
on that throne to-day as the God who is real man, 
as the man who is true and very God. 

In the hour when His Judgment Seat is set 
each Christian will be summoned to meet Him, 
not only as the crucified and risen man, the Sav- 
iour of all who own Him, but as living God and 
eternal Judge. 

Each Christian must give an account to Him. 

You cannot give an account for me. 

I cannot give an account for you. 

You must give an account for yourself. 

I must give an account for myself. 

That word "account" means "speech," "narra- 
tive," "reason." 

We will have to make our speech to Him, give 
a narrative of our lives as Christians. We shall 
have to give a reason for what we did and what 
we did not do. We shall have to tell Him why 
we neglected His Holy Word, the exercise of 
prayer, the house of God; and why again and 
again we refused to meet the responsibility of 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 337' 

the profession we made or the service into which ^ 
He called us. 

Everything will come out in that all searching 
light. 

The good and the bad will come out. 

In that hour our souls will be like the wax 
cylinder of the phonograph. The slightest ac- 
cent of the voice is marked on the cylinder. 
Long after the voice has ceased, after the lips 
are turned to dust, the very word and the very 
tone in which it was spoken may be reproduced 
and heard in all its original force and clearness. 
Every word you have spoken in your life is re- 
corded on your soul, every deed and back of 
deed and word every thought, impulse, intent 
and purpose. 

Now and then the yesterdays come back to 
you, the outline of a landscape through which 
you have passed, the breath from of¥ a mountain 
peak gleaming with the touch of morning light, 
or a draught of salt sea air blown in by ocean 
winds, a face that looks at you across the crowd 
and passes on, some roadway, some sylvan spot 
where you drove or walked in company with 



338 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

those you loved, a careless word you spoke on 
easy tongue, some impulse that rose but never 
moved beyond the half veiled purpose and the 
plan — this is not mere memory, the kaleidoscope 
turning of the brain, but the soul rising up to 
witness for or against itself as its own indelible 
recorder. 

But stop ! Note this ! You can take the wax 
roll and shave off the impressions so that they 
may no longer confront you. 

There is a way in which the sins and failures, 
the short-comings and the mistakes of your life 
as a Christian may be removed from your soul. 
One way in which these things may not be 
known, may not confront you at the Judgment 
Seat of Christ, and that way — Confession; as it 
is written : 

"If we (Christians) confess our sins, he is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

Confessed sins will not appear at the Judg- 
ment Seat of Christ. 

Unconfessed sins will be revealed and will 
weigh the scales of judgment in relation to our 
work and service. 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 339 

O that I could impress you as Christians with 
the necessity of confession. 

The Romanist goes to confession. He bares 
all things. He pours all out in the ears of the 
listening priest. The priest gives him what he 
claims to be full and complete absolution. 

You need to go to confession. You need to 
pour your heart out into the ears of the listening 
priest, not in the ears of any priest on earth, no 
such confession is warranted of God. The doc- 
trine is the invention of man. The claim to give 
absolution is treason to God and wicked blas- 
phemy. You have a priest. That priest is in 
heaven. He is your risen Lord and Saviour. 
He is in heaven within the veil, seated upon the 
throne a high priest after the order of Mel- 
chizedek. He is there to act on your behalf. 
This is His great and ever unfinished work. The 
work of redemption was finished, but His work 
as priest, as intercessor and advocate for His 
Church, for individual Christians is unceasing. 
His ears are ever open to hear. He is waiting 
always to take up our slightest petition and pre- 
sent it before His Father's throne. He is anx- 



340 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

ious to hear our confession. He is ready to make 
that confession turn to our welfare and peace. 

The mode and way of this action is very sim- 
ple. 

Come to Him. Confess all that is upon your 
heart and soul. Keep nothing back. Make no 
attempt to exculpate or justify yourself. Give 
up the idea of seeking scapegoats for your own 
responsible failure. Tell the truth at any cost to 
your pride. Take sides with the Lord against 
yourself. Put your confession free and full into 
His hands and leave it there. He will take that 
confession and spread it before the Father. He 
will say to the Father : 

"O Father, long ago and anticipatingly I died 
for these very sins here so fully confessed. The 
confession bears witness of the believer's faith in 
me, his sorrow over sin and his desire to walk 
in fellowship with Thee. I claim the forgive- 
ness and the cleansing of this believer, not as an 
alien and rebel, but as a stumbling child of 
Thine. I claim forgiveness and cleansing in the 
value of my blood and according to the terms of 
the everlasting covenant wherein Thou didst 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 341 

pledge to give them unto me and fulfill my will 
concerning them." 

The Father hears the priestly and interced- 
ing plea and because He is faithful and just to 
His covenant He will forgive the confessing be- 
liever and cleanse him from all unrighteousness, 
as it is written : '^If we confess our sins, he (the 
Father) is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

There is immense moral and spiritual value in 
this act of confession. As you confess, as you 
bring to light the evil in you and judge it with 
the judgment of God you will learn more and 
more to hate it and turn away from it. 

At this Judgment Seat all things will be ad- 
justed by the Lord. All things will be righted 
and regulated. 

If any one owes you a debt, it will have to be 
acknowledged and paid. If a Christian has 
wronged you in any fashion, hurt you by an idle 
word or the spreading of a false and irrespon- 
sible report, such an one will have to apologize 
to you before high heaven and the assembled 
host; and all this is in the nature of the case, for 



342 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

the Son of God Himself has said here in rela- 
tion to this world : 

"If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there 
rememberest that thy brother hath aught against 
thee, 

"Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go 
thy way; first, be reconciled to thy brother, and 
then come and ofJer thy gift." 

If reconciliation and adjustment must be made 
here, how much more in that hour when every- 
thing is to be settled and the crooked made 
straight. 

At that Judgment Seat no good thing you 
have ever done in the name of Christ and for 
His sake will be forgotten ; as it is written : 

"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord 
come, who both will bring to light the hidden 
things of darkness, and will make manifest the 
counsels of the heart; and then shall every man 
have praise of Godf 

The kindly smile, the cup of cold water in His 
name, the cheery word spoken in the fitting sea- 
son, the clasp of hand by which you lifted an- 
other to firmer footing in the way of faith; all 
this will be remembered. 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 343 

IV. The Christian, who at the Judgment 
Seat of Christ is judged and determined as faith- 
ful will receive a reward. He will he permitted 
to enter in and share the joy of the Lord, 

The "joy of the Lord" is twofold. 

There is the joy which enabled Him to endure 
the cross, despising the shame; as it is written: 

"Who, for the joy that was set before him, en- 
dured the cross, despising the shame." 

What think you was it which made Him press 
forward to Jerusalem in that last and awful pass- 
over time when He knew He was Himself to be 
the chosen and eternal victim? What held Him 
in the heart-break of that last supper when all 
the shadows were deepening round Him? What 
made Him bend His will in Gethsemane and 
yield it wholly to the Father's claim, drinking 
the cup the Father gave Him to the very dregs 
even while the blood sweat dripped from His 
brow? What sealed His lips in the hour of trial 
and made Him withhold the power by which 
He had raised the dead and stilled the storm? 
Why did He not use that power in His own de- 
fense and scatter His foes as by the blast of a 



344 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

whirlwind? What led Him to restrain the 
prayer for the sixty thousand tall, strong-limbed 
angels the Father was ready to give Him, had 
He but asked it? Why did He hang in such 
amazingly apparent helplessness upon the cross 
when with but a word He gave salvation to the 
repentant thief dying by His side and opened 
paradise to the fresh believing soul? Why did 
He endure the agony, the horror, all the untrans- 
latable woe but partially expressed in the uni- 
verse-splitting cry as of one forsaken? What 
gave Him impulse and furnished Him strength 
whereby He not only endured the cross, but ris- 
ing in moral grandeur and balanced conscience 
above its shame, endured it, despised it, and 
counted it as naught? 

There is but one answer. 

And this is the answer — ^'The joy that was set 
before Him/^ The joy through that agony, that 
anguish and shame of becoming your Redeemer, 
your Saviour and mine. 

It must be a joy no tongue can tell, no niind 
conceive — the joy of unlimited power. To be 
able to speak and by a word create a world, or 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 345 

send a lot of shining systems flashing on their 
course ; but to Him such a joy is not comparable 
to the joy of recreating a human soul, filling it 
with divine life, the divine nature, linking it to 
the eternal Godhead and making that soul one 
with Himself in eternal Sonship before the Fa- 
ther's throne. 

This is the joy He saw might be His on the 
other side of the cross, the joy of taking the place 
of the First man, becoming the Second man and 
the new, the perfect, the eternal life-giving Head 
of the fallen race of man. 

For the sake of that joy He endured the cross, 
endured the agony, the hiding of the Father's 
face, rising above all the stinging, smiling^ mock- 
ery of the crowd and all the shame, the piercing 
sorrow of the bloody and torturing gibbet. 

He has illustrated this joy that held Him fast 
to the course He chose and all the horrors He at 
last endured in the wondrous threefold parable 
which He spoke. 

He has illustrated it in the shepherd who hav- 
ing lost his sheep went out to seek it, found it, 
placed it on his shoulder, carried it back to the 



346 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

fold, then called together his neighbors to re- 
joice with him because he had found the wan- 
dering sheep he had mourned as lost. 

He saw you as the wandering sheep out on the 
mountains cold and bare, the mountains of sin 
and shame. He saw you wandering amid the 
deep defiles, He heard the growl of the seeking 
wolves and the hiss of the hooded serpents of 
sin; He saw the precipices, the sharp rocks, and 
the bottomless pit whither your footstep led and 
He came down to seek you. The thought of 
finding you, lifting you to the shoulder of His 
strength and bearing you home to the Father's 
fold filled Him with joy, hastened His feet to 
find the cross and gave Him strength to be nailed 
thereon for you. 

He illustrates His joy in the woman who lost 
her piece, lighted her candle, swept the house 
diligently, found the missing coin, then bade her 
neighbors come in and rejoice with her because 
that which had been lost had been found again. 

He saw you as a coin of the realm, as an in- 
finite value of God, stamped with His image, 
but no longer a medium of exchange or circula- 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 347 

tion for Him, fallen into some by and hidden 
corner, a lost value, lost to God and the best uses 
of yourself. To die and on the basis of His 
death to found a Church, send it out like the 
woman with the lighted candle of the Word in 
the energy of the Spirit and in His name to seek 
for worthful but lost and helpless souls, find 
them and make them of infinite value to God 
that they might pass and repass revealing His 
image and be returned at last to the treasury of 
heaven, that was the joy which held Him where 
nails otherwise would have had no power. This 
was the joy that despised the shame. 

He illustrates His joy in the story of that fa- 
ther whose son turned his back upon the goodly 
home, spent all he had in riotous living, sank 
down amid the swine, and lower than they, 
came to himself, thought of the father and the 
far away home, turned his face thitherward with 
beating heart and trembling step to seek no better 
place than that of a hired servant amid the serv- 
ants he once had ruled and suddenly beheld that 
father coming to meet him with outstretched 
arms and loving kiss; that father who said so 



348 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

that all the world in every tongue has heard it 
since: "Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; 
and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was 
dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is 
found.'' 

You who now believe were that anticipated 
son He foresaw. He saw you as one who had 
turned his back on the Father's house; as one 
who had no higher function than to feed the 
swine, the beast appetites and passions which 
throng and crowd and thrust their hungry de- 
mands of the flesh upon the soul. To die upon 
the cross pay your debt to justice; yea, all the 
debt you owed, rise again and have power to ar- 
rest you, awaken you, bring you to yourself, give 
you vision of the Father's house on high, make 
your soul to turn and seek the Father's face in 
willingness to be a servant amid all the servants 
of His will, and then fling round you the em- 
brace of the Father's love, bring you into fellow- 
ship with Him on the basis of that sacrificial 
death of the cross, clothe you with the seamless 
robe of the divine righteousness, give you the 
ring of the endless life and cause you to be shod 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 349 

with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, 
this was the joy He would drink out of the 
dregs of agony the cross had in store for Him. 

Never forget it! the joy set before Him, the 
joy which made Him endure the cross and de- 
spise the shame was the joy of being your Sav- 
iour and mine. 

But there is yet another and climacteric joy set 
before Him, the joy which has enabled Him to 
endure with patience His exile to the Father's 
throne. That joy is announced in the Father's 
promise. 

After His resurrection and ascension to the 
throne the Father bade Him sit there till He 
should make His enemies His footstool. 

He promised Him He should come back to 
this world and sit upon His holy hill of Zion as 
King of the Jews as it is written in the second 
psalm : 

"Yet have I set (that is, I will set) my King 
upon my holy hill of Zion." 

He was crucified as the Kmg of the Jews. He 
will come back to be enthroned as the King of 
the Jews, 



350 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

Not only of the Jews but of the Gentiles; as 
again it is written in that second psalm : 

"Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen 
(Gentiles) for thine inheritance, and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for thy possession." 

Consider what a joy it will be for Him to come 
back as the King of the Jews ! 

Recall that scene in Herod's guard room 
where they threw an old cloak upon His shoul- 
ders, a soldier's used and soiled cloak, bowed 
the knee before Him, mocked, spit upon and 
abused Him. Think of the people. His own 
people whom He came to save, repudiating 
Him, sending Him to the cross, clamoring for 
a robber and honoring him in His stead. 

Think of that writing above His head : "This 
is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," and 
placed there not for coronation but as accusation. 

What a joy will it be for Him to come with 
all His cohorts of splendor to make that writing 
not a shame but glory, not an accusation but a 
verification. 

What an hour that will be when the elect and 
repentant Jews delivered from the tyranny and 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 351 

terror of the wild beast King and His merci- 
less scourging shall look upon Him whom their 
fathers pierced and own Him as Messiah, Lord 
and God, the Holy One of Israel, their own 
anointed King. What a joy it will be to Him 
who was whipped and gibed and hung on a rob- 
ber's cross to come back, not only as the Son and 
heir of David's throne, but as King of kings and 
Lord of lords, the God of all the earth. 

What joy it shall be to enthrone Himself at 
Jerusalem, to sit on Mount Zion and for a thou- 
sand golden years to administer righteousness 
and truth to the glory of God the Father, and to 
the far-reaching and measureless blessing of 
men. This will be the consummate joy of the 
Lord. 

The Christian who has passed his civil service 
examination at the Judgment Seat of Christ will 
be invited to share that joy. 

The Lord will say to him: 

"Well done, good and faithful servant: thou 
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make 
thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the 
joy of thy Lord/' 



352 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

Here as plainly as language can put it, the 
Lord's power and authority to appoint rulers on 
the earth is His joy. That appointment of ruler- 
ship is the declaration that He is acting in His 
office as King; that the region and sphere of ap- 
pointment is the kingdom. Acting as King on 
the earth then is His joy. 

The faithful Christian will share this joy by 
being appointed a ruler in the earthly or mil- 
lennial kingdom. 

Thus it is evident that rulership with Christ 
on earth is not a common but restrictive privi- 
lege, restricted to those who are faithful, to 
whom the Lord can say specifically, ^Well done, 
good and faithful servant." 

One of the joys in that joyful sharing of the 
joy of Christ will be the privilege, not only of 
rulership, but sitting at the feet of the King Him- 
self, and from time to time, listening as He shall 
unfold the written Word w^hich long ago. He 
Himself as the living Word, inspired ; for in let- 
ters of light I read this rare and wondrous af- 
firmation: 

^'And it shall come to pass in the last days, that 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 3S3 

the mountain of the Lord's house shall be estab- 
lished in the top of the mountains, and shall be 
exalted above the hills ; and all the nations shall 
flow into it. 

"And many people shall go and say, Come ye, 
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the 
house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach 
us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths : 
for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the 
word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 

Who can measure the joy of listening to His 
divine and human voice as He shall unfold the 
first chapter of Genesis and tell the story of that 
wide sweep of ages between the first and second 
verses; that hour when with His own spoken 
Word, and as Himself the Word, He set the heav- 
ens and the earth in their course; that mysteri- 
ous moment when the cataclysmic crash came 
which flung the earth from its original orbit out 
of the original sunlight into the dark and form- 
less void of chaos, the resurrection of the earth 
out of the woful night and watery waste, the 
six days remaking of it as the dwelling place of 
man and the long ordained arena of redemption, 
the revelation of the love of God. 



354 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

What a joy to have Him take up the book of 
Daniel, verify each written prophetic word, the 
deeps of meaning in each impacted symbol, and 
on the dust of broken empires make manifest 
how through all the tortuous and bloody cycles 
of their history His hand was steadily guiding 
the march of events till they culminated in that 
kingdom of stone of which He Himself is basic 
rock and apex. 

What joy to hear Him expound the Gospel of 
John and from every gleaming splendor of His 
now fully manifested deity justify the opening 
words of that Gospel: ''In the beginning was 
the Word, and the Word was with God, and God 
was the Word/' hear Him affirm the truth of 
John in that wide open and bottomless phrase : 
''No man hath seen God (the Father) at any 
time, the only begotten God (true rendering) 
which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath 
declared Him." 

What a moment when He shall fully reveal 
the book of Revelation, the apocalyptic radiance 
of fulfilled and still fulfilling glories. 

O the joy of walking with Him through the 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 355 

sacred ways of Palestine, sitting with Him as did 
the disciples of old, and with those very disciples 
again upon the brow of Olivet, listening while 
He unbares the deeper secrets of the cross, the 
countless eternity, the mysteries and the endless 
wonders of redeeming grace. 

Think of it! The joy of being fed with knowl- 
edge, of having veil after veil of mystery taken 
away and finding the reason, the wisdom, the 
love and the glory in all the providences of God, 
seeing the good always behind the evil, finding 
the straightness, the directness and the perpen- 
dicularity of the divine dealings behind all the 
complications of the wrath of man, the ingenious 
malignancy of the devil and the apparent contra- 
dictions of the way. 

Surely this will be entering into His joy and 
sharing it. Beyond question this will be rich 
and royal reward, to reign as kings, to rule with 
Him, to take the place of associate and inter- 
ceding priests, to be the chamberlains who shall 
attain access for others to His welcoming and 
enriching presence. 

Ah ! to be kings who shall rule creation's ways 



356 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

and priests who shall lead and intone creation's 
praise; to be the sharers of His earthly king- 
dom and to rejoice with joy exceeding in His 
joy. 

V. The Christian who shall not he found 
faithful will suffer loss. He cannot enter into 
the joy of the Lord. 

Those who have preached and by their preach- 
ing have built nothing better than wood, hay 
and stubble on the foundation of Christ will be 
judged as unfaithful stewards of the Word of 
God. 

At that Judgment Seat the preachers who have 
been willing to make the Church a rubbish heap 
will be fully revealed. Men who have mixed 
law and grace, the righteousness of God with 
the righteousness of man; who have preached 
prohibition, socialism and state legislation; like 
Lot, have endeavored to clean up Sodom, and 
like Lot in Sodom have vexed their righteous 
but unspiritual souls with their daily and mani- 
fested inability to keep it clean. 

O what rubbish heaps some churches are! 

Everything under heaven preached but the 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 357 

Gospel of the Grace of God. The life of Christ 
proclaimed, but not His death, evolution from 
below instead of regeneration from above, the 
first birth and not the second, appeals made to 
the inhering, self-redemptive powers in man in- 
stead of exhortation to claim redeeming blood. 
Everywhere the watchword, "Toleration." The 
right to think and go as you please in matters of 
religion; modern thought and not first century 
thought, the word of man and not the Word of 
God, goodness taught and not Godness ; the pres- 
ent life the only life worth while, one religion as 
good as another: Romanism which teaches an 
earthly priesthood and a continually sacrificed 
Christ as good as Protestantism which teaches 
one sacrifice once for all and one priest alone and 
in heaven; Judaism which denies the deity of 
Christ and looks upon Him as a cool deceiver or 
a weakling failure, and Christian Science which 
denies the Trinity, the personality of God, the 
fact of sin and death and owns Jesus simply as 
an idea and no longer a fact, just as good as any 
other system that makes use of the name of God; 
Christ Himself owned as a moralist, at best a re- 



358 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

former and never a personal and only Saviour of 
men, the Bible not the exclusive Word of God 
and by no means the only revelation of God to 
man. 

O the rubbish heaps some churches are! 

All sorts of means used to draw the people, 
street cleaners with their band, base ball experts 
to talk on the benefit of physical sobriety, regu- 
lar habits and cleanliness, lectures, moving show 
pictures, ice cream suppers, dramatic entertain- 
ments, social clubs, military companies^ minstrel 
shows, burlesques and dancing. 

All this is wood, hay and stubble. 

Like wood, hay and stubble, it is big, bulks 
greatly, gives the idea of being busy, occupied, 
doing things; but like wood, hay and stubble, 
the bigger the bulk the bigger the bonfire it will 
make; for all such religious rubbish will be 
burned away on the day of the Lord. Not only 
so, multitudes of those who are brought into the 
churches, who become its members give no sign 
of a change of life, give no evidence of spiritual 
income and spiritual outgo, who are in reality as 
lifeless as wood, hay and stubble; who have 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 359 

swelled the list of "conversions" and have made 
a good numerical showing in annual reports, 
these will be shown on the day of the Lord as 
elements of churchly rubbish, and witness of the 
worthlessness of the work of those who "added" 
them to the Church. 

The preachers who in spite of all the blind- 
ness and blundering of their wood, hay and stub- 
ble work have been really regenerated, have had 
some element of divine life, the foolish and de- 
ceived workers who have mistaken quantity for 
quality, will in that hour when they stand at the 
Judgment Seat of Christ be accused of unfaith- 
fulness to their trust and shall suffer loss. None 
of these shall enter into and share the joy of the 
Lord. They cannot take part in the kingdom on 
the earth. 

Christians who have refused to give of their 
substance; who have been willing to spend it on 
themselves, but not on God; that class of Chris- 
tians who are always revolting against "expense" 
in the Church and Judas-like are continually 
talking of "this waste," these shall miss the joy 
of the Lord. 



360 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

Christians who live notoriously and intention- 
ally inconsistent lives; who openly dishonor the 
name of Christ; who are impervious to spiritual 
appeal; who claim the assurance of salvation; 
who no doubt really believe, but refuse to bring 
forth the things which accompany salvation, 
these shall suffer loss. Amiable Christians, de- 
cent Christians, Christians who always go to 
church, but never do anything for Christ; who 
sit still on the cushioned seats of easy security 
and repeat to themselves as complacent justifica- 
tion, "not of works lest any man should boast" — 

Think of it! Redeemed by blood, made par- 
takers of the divine nature, indwelt by the Holy 
Ghost, linked up to a risen Christ, claiming all 
the guarantees of salvation; and yet, never do- 
ing anything for Him who has done all things 
for them. 

O the pitiableness of it. Redeemed and doing 
nothing for Christ. 

And these all shall suffer loss, the loss of what 
they might have had. They will miss the "well 
done." They cannot enter into the joy of the 
Lord. They will have no part in the kingdom of 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 361 

the thousand years on earth. During the thou- 
sand years they will be in the kingdom, but in 
heaven, in the Holy City, and not on earth. 

VI. The Judgment Seat of Christ will have 
a twofold consummation. 

It will continue for three years and a half and 
then Satan, the Devil, will be cast out of heaven. 

There need be no astonishment at the sugges- 
tion of the Devil being in heaven. He is the 
prince of the powers of the air, the head of the 
hierarchy of evil spirits and angels who occupy 
the d^rk void surrounding the earth. 

That Satan has access to the presence of the 
Lord is revealed in the first chapter of the book 
of Job. He comes into the presence of the Lord 
and accuses Job. This is his role. He is both an 
accuser and a slanderer. He is prosecuting at- 
torney for righteousness. He will be there to ac- 
cuse the brethren. Then will be seen the ad- 
vantage of confessing to the Lord down here. 
Whatever has been so confessed down here can- 
not appear up there. But Satan will bring to 
light every unconfessed sin and failure on the 
part of the Christian. Those who have been 



362 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

faithful, against whom he can bring no accusa- 
tion will overcome him by the blood of the 
Lamb and the word of their testimony. They 
will meet the charges he shall make by an appeal 
to the redeeming and cleansing power of the 
blood and to the record of their faithfulness in 
testimony when here. He will be finally cast 
out into the earth and his angels with him; as it 
is written : 

"And the great dragon was cast out, that old 
serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which de- 
ceiveth the whole world ; he was cast out into the 
earth, and his angels were cast out with him, and 
I heard a loud voice saying in heaven. Now is 
come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom 
of our God, and the power of His Christ; for the 
accuser of our brethren is cast down, which ac- 
cused them before our Lord day and night. 

"And they overcame him by the blood of the 
Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." 

That the Judgment Seat of Christ will last 
three years and a half and that the casting out of 
Satan is the terminal point of the Judgment Seat 
of Christ is demonstrated by the fact that Anti- 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 36;^ 

Christ, the man of sin who will be reigning on 
the earth after the Lord has translated the 
Church to heaven and set up the Judgment Seat, 
will enter into a covenant or alliance with the 
Jews in Palestine for seven years (called in 
the prophecy of Daniel ^'oneweek"; that is, 
a period of seven, and by the context sig- 
nifying years) . In the midst of the seven years 
(that is at the end of three years and a half) he 
breaks his alliance with the Jews; now it is at 
this very point of breakage he exalts himself with 
greatest power. An examination of Revelation 
thirteenth will show that it is after Satan has 
been cast out that he himself gives all his own 
power to the "beast," or Antichrist. The casting 
of Satan out of heaven then is coincident with 
the exaltation to power of the man of sin; and 
as this exaltation takes place in the midst of the 
week or at the end of three years and a half and 
during that three years and a half Satan is rep- 
resented in heaven accusing the brethren, and 
this accusation implies and includes a trial be- 
fore a judge, then evidently during that three 
years and a half the Judgment Seat of Christ has 



364 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

been in session; that long at least, and as much 
longer as may be the lapse of time between the 
moment when the Church is taken up and the 
Antichrist enters into his seven years covenant 
with apostate Jews. 

During the final three years and a half on 
earth Satan will sway the whole world through 
this man of sin, the son of Perdition, the world's 
last Kaiser, the Antichrist. 

Then will come the climax. Christ and His 
translated and adjudged saints will descend in 
manifested glory to the Mount of Olives to exe- 
cute judgment on the kingdom of Satan, over- 
throw iniquity and set up the reign and rule of 
righteousness. 

All the saints will come with Him ; for it is 
written : 

^This honor have all his saints." 

But, after the judgment of the nations, those 
who are not to share in the earthly kingdom will, 
and in the nature of the case, return to the upper 
city and remain there during the thousand years. 

Rulership and participation with Christ dur- 
ing the thousand years on earth is wholly and 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 365 

altogether a matter of reward. It is for those to 
whom at the Judgment Seat our Lord shall say: 

"Well done thou good and faithful servant." 

VII. Christ as Judge is already imminently 
before the door of the Church. 

This is the Divine and Holy Ghost way of 
saying that the coming of Christ for His Church 
is imminent. 

So imminent is it that the Holy Ghost says He 
is before the door. If the door should be opened 
the Church would find herself face to face with 
Him, not only as her Saviour but as her righteous 
Judge. 

And this is the announced order; as it is writ- 
ten: 

"The time is come that judgment must begin 
at the house of God!* 

While many predicted events are between us 
and the appearing of Christ in glory, many 
things which form the burden of prophetic warn- 
ing and find their amplified accent in our Lord's 
discourse and are uttered and illuminated for us 
in the parenthetic chapters of Revelation, those 
terrible chapters which extend from the sixth to 



366 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

the nineteenth, between us and the coming of the 
Lord for the Church, there is not a single fore- 
announced event. 

It may be at any hour and therefore at any 
moment. 

He has only to speak, the door will be opened. 

According to the Word of God^ the testimony 
of the Son of God and the corroborative and un- 
broken testimony of the Apostles, there is not the 
thickness of tissue paper between us who are 
Christians and the Judgment Seat of Christ. 

In the light of this tremendous judicial immi- 
nency the corollary of the present opportunity is 
immensely self-evident. 

As Christians we ought to arouse. 

We ought to make our calling and election 
sure. 

What an unspeakable experience it would be 
if before morning we should be summoned to the 
Judgment Seat of Christ and learn sooner or 
later that we could not pass the examination with 
honor to ourselves nor glory to the Lord ! 

The Apostle John speaks of being put to shame 
in that hour. 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 367 

O what disaster, what shame if for the sake of 
a dance, a game of cards, a glass of wine, a night 
in the theatre; what a disaster if for the sake 
of self pleasure, self gratification of any sort, an 
unwillingness to be strong and steadfast and to 
stand for truth, a compromise and failure by the 
way; what disaster, what indescribable shame if 
we should find we were shut out from that gold- 
en hour, tbat splendid sweep of a thousand heav- 
en illuminated years. 

It is time to awake and let go the grip upon 
the things of earth; time to let the vision of 
heaven and heavenly things enter in and possess 
the soul ; time to let go the handf uls of dust we 
call our plans, plans already slipping through 
our loosening fingers and falling into the ever 
opening trench men call a grave ; time to realize 
God in our daily experience, be as conscious of 
God as we are of the winds that blow or the 
heat that burns, or the circumstance that dis- 
turbs, hinders or makes us turn; time to arouse 
because should the voice call and the hand of 
power lift us to the judgment seat we should be 
ready without hesitation and wholly unafraid to 
answer and say: 



368 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 

"Here Lord am I." 

To you who are unsaved listen to the word of 
warning: If Christ should come to-night, or to- 
morrow you would be left behind to certain woe 
and sorrow which even the symbols given of God 
fail fully to reveal. At the last you would die. 
For a thousand years you would be held in the 
prison house of the underworld. Then would 
come the second resurrection, the second death. 
As a forever disembodied soul you would pass 
out into eternity where the cry of anguish would 
ring through the endless and hopeless darkness, 
"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken 
me?" 

Hear me, I pray! Get into Christ, let Christ 
get into you. Take God at His word, believe the 
record, stand on the promise, offer Christ as your 
sacrifice, claim Him as your substitute; say, "O 
God, death is my doom and death is my due; 
but, Thou hast given Thy Son for such as I. Ac- 
cept the judgment which fell on Him as though 
it had fallen on me. By His bloody pains. His 
anguish and His woe, let me go free. Accept me 
in His name, make me Thy child and Thine for- 



ever more." 



THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST 369 

Say that and mean it, and quickly as you say 
it God will accept and save you. 

God forbid you should trifle! God forbid 
any one of you here in spite of the love of God, 
the blood of Christ, the call of the Gospel, the 
conviction of the Spirit and the prayers of those 
who love you, God forbid you should be among 
those in eternity who shall take up the cry, not 
the cry of adoration and praise from the lips of 
the blood-washed and enraptured hosts, but the 
cry wrenched from the sunless souls of the unre- 
deemed, that unspeakably awful cry which shall 
make a universe to quiver — "Lost! Lost! We 
are forever lost" — God forbid it. 



VI 
THAT BLESSED HOPE 



The Blessed Hope. 

My theme to-night is, '^The Second Coming 
of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Hope of 
the Church." 

My text is Saint Paul's epistle to Titus, second 
chapter and thirteenth verse : 

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glori- 
ous appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ." 

The text may be rendered : 

"Expecting that blessed hope, and the mani- 
festation of the glory of our great God and 
Saviour Jesus Christ." 

The text is preceded by a context of several 
verses. I shall quote them inclusive of the 
text. 

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation 
hath appeared to all men. 

"Teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and 
worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, 
and godly, in this present world; 

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glori- 



374 THE BLESSED HOPE 

ous appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ." 

In presenting this theme I shall consider, 

First, the doctrine of grace. 

Second, the grace of God has been manifested. 

Third, the grace of God brings salvation to all 
men. 

Fourth, the grace of God teaches those who 
accept salvation what to deny. 

Fifth, the grace of God teaches those who are 
saved how to live in this present age or world. 

Sixth, the grace of God sets before those of us 
who are saved the hope which the Spirit calls, 
''blessed." 

Seventh, grace teaches us the attitude we 
should hold in relation to this blessed hope. 

The grace of God ! 

This is an immense phrase. 

Immense because it links the word ''grace" to 
the name and title — God. 

God is the God of grace. 

Grace in its simplest definition is "free favor," 
*^unmerited, undeserved favor." 



THE BLESSED HOPE 375 

The grace of God is the free, full, unmerited, 
undeserved favor of God; that favor which in- 
cludes all there is of love, mercy, blessing, bene- 
fit of every sort, and bestowed on man without 
money and without price; blessing, mercy, and 
measureless love which no man in any wise, un- 
der any circumstances could merit, deserve, buy 
or earn in any way or fashion whatsoever. 

This is grace, and grace of God. 

This grace of God was manifested in and 
through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Grace was poured into His lips. He spoke 
words of loving compassion and tender sym- 
pathy. His deeds co-ordinated His words. He 
gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, 
speech to the dumb. He made the lame man to 
leap as a hart, cleansed the leper with a word, 
raised the dead and to those who were weary 
and heavy laden He said, "Come unto me and 
rest." 

All that He said and did, He said and did in 
the name of the Father and as sent by Him; so 
that His words and deeds were the revelation of 



37^ THE BLESSED HOPE 

the Father's heart and the manifestation of His 
grace. 

Every time His feet touched the earth they 
gave it a benediction, every time He breathed 
the air He sweetened it and every word He 
spoke filled it with music; yet, overflowing with 
love and mercy, perfect as His life was in the 
demonstration of the Father's grace and proof 
that Heaven looked with yearning and compas- 
sion upon a world of sin, it is not the grace to 
which the Spirit draws our attention here. The 
grace we are invited to contemplate is not His 
life on earth among men but His death, for- 
saken of God upon the cross. 

On the cross our Lard Jesus Christ died as a 
sacrifice for sin. 

By that sacrificial death He satisfied the law, 
the government and the being of God. 

He satisfied and honored the law of God by 
meeting and paying the penalty of the law which 
said, ^The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 

He honored God's government by recognizing 
the law as coming from the hand of God as the 






THE BLESSED HOPE 377 

lawgiver of the universe, and therefore as its 
ruler, administrator, and governor. 

He honored the being of God by acting as the 
representative of man in sin, sin of nature and 
sin of transgression, thus appealing to and draw- 
ing forth from God all His legal and essential 
antagonism to sin till the heat and wrath and 
hate of it poured down as onrushing sweeps of 
divine and eternal judgment 

The death of Christ was not academic, nor 
merely dramatic. It was not accidental nor in- 
cidental, but integral, constitutional, the very 
fibre and make-up of the purpose and prede- 
termination of God. The cross was the center 
of the eternal counsels before the foundation of 
the earth was laid. The death of Christ was 
motived and ordained before His birth. 

By the cross the righteousness of God was dis- 
played. 

By the cross God's hatred of sin, His un- 
changeable wrath and pitiless, unending de- 
termination of ceaseless judgment against it and 
punishment of it were so proclaimed and made 



37^ THE BLESSED HOPE 

manifest that with law, government and being 
honored, He could hold back judgment from a 
guilty, sin-loving world and deal with it in un- 
deserved favor, mercy, and grace. 

Thus was the grace of God proclaimed by the 
wrath of God. 

Out of the wrath and hatred of God against 
sin; by the inexorableness of that law which 
sheathed its sword of justice deep into the quiv- 
ering soul of the divine victim; by the holiness, 
perf ectness and absolute integrity of the Father's 
essential being which made Him turn His back 
upon His Son, turning away from Him until the 
blackness and darkness of the infinite forsaking 
fell upon Him and drowned Him under its over- 
flowing billowSj the grace of God was made 
manifest. 

This grace of God brings salvation to all men. 

The salvation is threefold. 

It is salvation from the penalty of sin, the 
power of sin, and identification with and par- 
ticipation in the multiplied, resplendent glories 
of a Coming Christ. 



THE BLESSED HOPE 379 

Salvation from the penalty of sin is to be had 
by claiming our Lord Jesus Christ as a personal 
substitute. 

Under the Levitical law the Jew who wished 
to be ceremonially clean from the judgment of 
sin selected a lamb, put a rope about its neck, 
led it to the priest, put his hand upon its head 
and confessed his sins, the knife of the priest 
leaped forth, the throat of the victim was cut, the 
blood was shed and the offerer pronounced clean, 
went forth free of judgment. 

Just so you are to look back by faith to the 
cross of Christ (and faith can link you to that 
cross quicker than wireless telegraphy can fling 
its message across the intervening seas) ; you are 
to claim the death of Christ upon the cross as 
your sacrifice for sin; then you are to turn, face 
God and say to Him : 

"O God, no matter though I may deem my- 
self the whitest and finest of men; no matter 
though those who know me may testify that not 
a spot or charge is against me, I accept the esti- 
mate which Thou hast formed of me, that I am a 



380 THE BLESSED HOPE 

sinner both by nature and transgression. I own 
and accept Thy judgment that I ought to die; 
but, I offer to Thee now the sacrifice which 
Thou Thyself hast provided. I claim Thy Son 
crucified and dead on yonder cross as my sub- 
stitute." 

Immediately God the Father will accept the 
death of His Son as though you had died. He 
will accept the judgment and the billowy down- 
rush of wrath that fell on Him as though it had 
fallen on you and lo ! you are legally clean, not 
guilty, forgiven, justified and accepted as right- 
eous and so presented before that court where 
holiness is the fashion. 

And this is undeserved mercy and free favor. 

This is grace, pure and unqualified grace. 

You have no righteousness of your own. You 
could not even dare to offer it to God. Your 
best righteousness in His sight was no better than 
unclean, filthy rags. He did not ask goodness of 
you. God does not want goodness. He wants 
Godness, His own quality and character. 

Just as you, if you have respect for yourself 



THE BLESSED HOPE 3^1 

cannot afford to associate with one whose char- 
acter is not equal to your own, neither can God 
accept in fellowship with Himself those who 
are not holy, spotless, and pure. "Without holi- 
ness no man shall see the Lord." In default of 
that holiness you must pay the penalty in death. 
You never can get beyond paying of it; and since 
you can neither live according to the standard 
of God's righteousness, nor pass beyond the 
liquidation of your penalty. He has provided the 
sacrifice for sin and will accept the death of 
Christ as the full payment of the penalty which 
is your due and will credit you with the "obedi- 
ence" of Christ unto that death when you be- 
lieve, that through faith you may be linked up 
to Him, not only as the one made sin for you, 
but as your righteousness, so that in Him you 
shall be the very righteousness of God. 

Undeserved mercy and freest favor this — 
who can doubt it? 

Grace, pure and unqualified grace this — who 
may dispute it? 



382 THE BLESSED HOPE 

Grace it is that saves from the penalty of sin. 

But you need to be saved, not only from the 
penalty, but from the power of sin. 

You can be saved from the power of sin only 
by a life that is superior to, and will reign above, 
sin. 

This life is not in you by nature. 

It is to be found alone in a risen Lord on the 
throne at the right hand of God. 

You cannot buy it. You cannot earn it. 
There is nothing you can do will make you de- 
serve it. It is to be had only as a gift. It is as 
much a gift as the sunshine which pours its flood 
of light upon you, as the air you breathe. And 
it is to be had as all other gifts of God are to be 
had. All the money in the world will not buy 
the gold of sunshine, the silver of moonlight, 
starlight, nor the circumambient air. You must 
receive them. 

The life that overcomes sin, the life that is the 
power of righteousness and truth in the soul is to 
be received, and received by faith, simple, child- 
like faith; for, the wages of sin is death, but 



THE BLESSED HOPE 383 

eternal life is the gift of God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ; and since by faith you are deliv- 
ered from death and bound up in the bundle of 
life with the risen Christ, and are one with Him, 
you shall take part in the glories that are His. 
You shall be heir of God and joint heir with 
Christ. 

This is undeserved mercy, the free, full, and 
unmeasured favor of God. 

This is grace and grace beyond degree. 

This grace and salvation by grace is offered 
to all men through the gospel of the grace of 
God and is commissioned to be preached to 
every creature. 

This is the age of grace. 

Herein is the explanation why iniquity runs 
riot, lawlessnesses are multiplied and sin rolls its 
unchecked, mad waves of sensualism and shame 
over all the foundation of righteousness and 
truth. Here is the reason why men may blas- 
pheme the name of the Holy God, raise their 
hands in proud disdain of His every claim and 
no thunderous judgment break forth to smite 



384 THE BLESSED HOPE 

them where they stand. Here is the reason why 
the heavens are silent, why no miracle, no inter- 
vention takes place, why no wing of angel is 
thrust through the blue of yonder sky: it is be- 
cause God is dealing in grace; and He and the 
Heaven host are waiting, silently watching to 
see what man will do ; whether he will despise 
this hour of grace or turn and accept its offer 
ere the wheels of judgment turn. 

Grace, that explains the silent God, the con- 
tinued down flow of mercy, rain falling upon 
the just as well as upon the unjust, the wicked 
flourishing like the green bay tree, the continu- 
ance of the gospel and the Spirit's insistent 
pleading. 

But, grace not only brings salvation, it teaches 
those who accept that salvation. 

It teaches them what to deny. 

That word "deny" is in itself a revelation. 

It is a revelation either of power or weakness. 

He who cannot deny, who cannot say, "No," 
is a pitiable slave. Passions, appetites, desires 
like hungry beasts with lolling tongues and 
bloodshot eyes will rush in and leap upon him. 



THE BLESSED HOPE 385 

Here is the appetite for drink. 

Days and even months may pass and the poor 
fool thinks himself immune, the very master and 
boasts his freedom, when, suddenly, it leaps 
upon him, clutches him by the throat and bids 
him yield. 

If he cannot deny, if he cannot say "No," and 
say it with a round and ringing circle of en- 
closed determination, authority and power, then 
will he follow like an ox to slaughter led: or 
like swine Circe fed will wallow in his swinery 
a sickening slave and brute till the appetite is 
gorged to fulness and then is he flung down a 
limp, lost, helpless thing, full of self-contempt 
and all the agony and bitterness of biting re- 
morse, filling himself with a thousand fresh- 
made pledges to resist, till again the beast leaps 
on him, claims him for its own and drags him 
still deeper in the filthy mire. 

Or, it is lust, lust coming with lean and lecher- 
ous lip, clammy hands and hateful breath to 
poison every vein of chastity and snakelike coil 
about the soul. 



386 THE BLESSED HOPE 

Not always in such beastly ways as that, but 
in ways and fashions that take you unawares and 
smother you and leave you stricken, struggling, 
panting in the treacherous embrace; leap upon 
you so quickly, and for a moment seem to be so 
beautiful, so winsome, so appealing to all that 
is in you, so deceiving you and disarming you, so 
hypnotizing and charming you that you sur- 
render with responding pulses and are gone be- 
fore an angel of God can descend and lift you out 
of the mire that awakens you with its foul and 
pitchy smear. 

But the grace of God can teach you to deny. 

I saw a company of men and women terror- 
ized by a brute beast of a dog. He saw they 
were afraid of him. That encouraged him to 
terrorize them more. He showed his white 
fangs, his quivering, nervous, slobbering lips till 
not one of the startled, fear-smitten party dared 
to move. 

Then I saw the master come. 

He looked the brute full in the eye and there 
was an almost cruel smile upon his lips. He 



THE BLESSED HOPE 387 

walked forward indifferent to the low and warn- 
ing growl, seized the beast by the scruff of the 
neck, heaved him up and flung him to the earth, 
put his feet upon the snapping jaws and with a 
voice that had in it the sound of a whiplash said, 
"lie there." Then he released him and with a 
howl of fear and conscious defeat the cowed 
beast slunk away to its kennel. 

Like that I have known men to lay hold of the 
beast of passion, fling it down and put their feet 
upon its neck, bid it lie there and be still. 

The grace of God taught them that. 

Sometimes it has been a fight, terrible, awful, 
straining at everything of life and hope in the 
soul, but grace has won. 

I know men who are Mount Vesuviuses, Etnas, 
and Chimborazzos in themselves. They are, in- 
deed, like burning volcanoes. Their veins are 
hot with inward fire, an easily provoked and 
maddened temper ready to blaze, to kindle into 
flame at a word or look, burst forth and wantonly 
destroy. They are always on the threshold of 
riotous words and impulsive acts. Anger, re- 



388 THE BLESSED HOPE 

sentment, quick burning hate and a bitterness 
that for the moment would rejoice to ruin every- 
thing that opposed or antagonized them are in 
them like bloodhounds straining at a leash. 

You would never know it, never dream it. 

They are calm, self-poised and self-controlled, 
never for a moment under keenest provocation 
losing the grip upon themselves. 

The grace of God has not only given them life, 
but taught them. 

With Paul they are able to say: 

^'By the grace of God I am what I am." 

The grace of God teaches those who are saved, 
not only to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
it teaches them how to live. 

Of all the blunders a human being can make, 
none are so supreme as the blunder of thinking 
you can profess the name of Christ, be baptized, 
join the Church and then live and do as you 
please, fill your lips with evil speech and walk 
in by and forbidden paths. 

If you be a true child of God, if regeneration 
be a fact in you, if you have passed into the realm 



THE BLESSED HOPE 389 

of a new and spiritual genesis, if Christ be really 
in you, then every evil deed and treasonable 
speech, betraying thought or impulse will find 
itself opposed, rebuked by that new and inward 
force, a force that will proclaim you and make 
you in spite of your own revolt, proclaim your- 
self a hypocrite, a worthless thing; so that, to 
continue in your careless and wilfully inconsist- 
ent life you must deliberately strangle the ever- 
protesting voice of God in you. 

Before you are saved, before you believe on 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the best character in the 
world will not avail you, it will not avail you 
because God is not asking for the best you can 
do, but for that which is absolutely perfect, for 
a character like His own, sinless, holy, far-flash- 
ing in hate against sin; and because you do not 
have it; because by nature you never can evolve 
it ; because in default of it you were under doom 
of death ; and because you can neither meet the 
demand for life, nor satisfy the demand for 
death, out of pure grace He provided this right- 
eousness in Christ whereby you might be clothed 



390 THE BLESSED HOPE 

and stand before Him in all the perfectness of 
character which He Himself requires. 

No character of your own before you are 
saved, however good it may be, will save you. 
That truth needs to be repeated over and over 
again and sunken deep into your consciousness 
and the consciousness of every human being on 
earth; but, after you are saved, then you are to 
give to God the most beautiful and perfect char- 
acter the eternal life committed to you can un- 
fold. 

The grace of God will teach you to live so- 
berly, righteously, and godly in this present world. 
To live the life that is discreet, equipoised and 
balanced. It will teach you to keep your feet in 
the path of righteousness and truth, to live the 
life of godliness, to let God and Christ and all 
spiritual things exude from the very pores of 
your being; to be a contagion, not for sickness, 
not for impulses of the flesh, but for spiritual 
health, for divine vigor and all the inbreathing 
and outbreathing of the Holy Ghost. 

You are to live in this present world (this 



THE BLESSED HOPE 391 

age) an age which is against the sons of God, 
and to find yourself fought against and hindered ; 
so that, time and again you will find yourself in- 
voluntarily saying, "the Christian life cannot be 
lived, everything is against it, it is wholly im- 
practicable, it makes a man try to live in the air 
while the law of gravitation forces him to stay 
upon the ground." You will find yourself say- 
ing, "I am perplexed. I am puzzled and do not 
know which way to turn. How can I meet my 
social obligations, my business responsibilities 
and be true to the spiritual profession I make?" 
The grace of God will teach you. No matter 
how great the problem it will teach you how to 
solve it. No matter how narrow the path that 
leads to the Kingdom of God it will teach you 
how to walk in it. It will deliver you from the 
truth half told, an evil thing worse a thousand 
fold in its reaction and outward effect than a 
whole and barefaced lie. It will deliver you 
from the insincerity and purposelessness which 
can ruin the noblest lives. Yes, the grace of God, 
if you are willing, if you wish it, even if you do 



392 THE BLESSED HOPE 

not deliberately hinder it will teach you how to 
live. 

And now, this grace having brought salvation, 
having taught us what to deny and how to live, 
sets before us the hope which is to animate us, 
encourage us, make us more and more willing 
every day to listen to the admonitions of grace 
and hold us fast and unswervingly in the faith 
as the anchor holds when clouds and darkness 
gather and wild storms break upon the vessel's 
side, the hope which the Spirit specifically calls 
—''that blessed hope!' 

It is well the grace of God should set this hope 
before us. 

Without hope it is impossible to live. 

No matter what may be your equipment, you 
cannot live, you cannot achieve without hope. 

There are some six millions of peoples in this 
great city to-night. To-morrow men and women 
will go forth to meet duties, obligations, responsi- 
bilities, calls of every sort. There will be prob- 
lems to solve and questions to answer that well 
may take the heart out of the bravest and the 



THE BLESSED HOPE 393 

best. There will be burdens to be borne whose 
staggering weight will threaten to crush the 
burden-bearer to the ground. 

And what is it, think you, will make this vast 
army arise and go forward and press on in the 
mighty struggle even with a smile upon the 
lips? 

What is it, what else could it be — but hope? 

Take hope away from man, the strongest, the 
bravest, and the best of men and despair like an 
octopus will thrust forth its foul and greedy 
tentacles and suck out the very soul of him. 

Look at that man lying down utterly crushed, 
unnerved, full of mental darkness and soul hor- 
ror. You can do nothing with him. No rebuke 
of yours will affect him. He is indifferent to all 
you say. Even if you warned him, shouted 
aloud his danger, he would not pick himself up 
out of the way of a swift advancing car. Tell 
him it will kill him — ^what does he care; indeed, 
he would rather die than live, and the peril is 
should he arise and make any effort it might be 
to put an end to life he can no longer endure — 
that man has no hope. 



394 THE BLESSED HOPE 

But let some one bend down and whisper in 
his ear the gladsome word of hope and lo! a 
new dawn will shine in his eyes, a new light will 
break across his face, he will arise, he will leap 
to his feet, his hands will outstretch and take on 
their grip, he will face the world and win. 

The Christian cannot be without hope. 

Without hope his feet are weak, his steps are 
laggard and his hands drop nerveless by his side. 
If he has no better outlook than the things of 
time and sense; if the horizon does not lift and 
expand into promised and better to-morrows, he 
is defeated ere the fight of faith begins. 

Grace teaches there is a hope for the Church 
and inclusively a hope for the Christian, an in- 
dividual and corporate hope. 

In no direction have there been greater blun- 
ders and more excuseless mistakes than in re- 
spect to the corporate hope, the hope of the 
Church. 

For generations the Church has been taught 
the conversion of the world as its supreme, its 
all-inspiring and definite hope. 



THE BLESSED HOPE 395 

By the preaching of the Gospel the whole 
world was to be brought into subjection to the 
way and will of Christ. This was the hope held 
out to the Church. 

To-night, after twenty centuries of Gospel 
preaching, the world is farther away from con- 
version than when Christianity began. 

So far from the world being overcome by the 
Church, the Church is rapidly being overcome 
by the world. 

This promise of a Gospel-converted world 
has been the hope deferred that makes the heart 
sick. 

It has been a disappointment that has turned 
to bitterness and unbelief. 

And there never has been any warrant for such 
hope. 

The Church is commanded to preach the 
Gospel in the whole world to every creature, 
and to every creature in each and every genera- 
tion. It was never intended some should hear it 
in this generation, some more in the next, more 
in each succeeding generation till the whole 



296 THE BLESSED HOPE 

world at last should have heard it. Never at all ! 
There is no such thought in the commission. It 
was intended that every creature in each genera- 
tion should hear this Gospel before he died. 
The whole world should hear it completely from 
generation to generation. None should appear 
at the final bar of God and plead he had never 
heard the tidings. The Apostle Paul affirms it 
had been universally heard in his day. Writing 
to the Colossiafis in one generation after the 
Gospel commission had been given he says, 
"The Gospel which ye have heard, and which 
was preached to every creature (literally, in all 
creation) which is under heaven." This was 
the divine ideal and purpose. 

But while this is the age for universal preach- 
ing, it is not the age for universal salvation. 

This is the age of restricted salvation, it is the 
hour of selective election. 

By the Gospel of His grace God is calling out 
here one and there another into faith and union 
with His Son. 

He is not seeking to save the world, but to call 
men out of it. 



THE BLESSED HOPE 397 

If you knew a ship was out there in the bay, 
hard and fast upon hidden reefs would you go 
forth, buy a lot of paint, gold leaf, and gilding, 
get into a lifeboat with a company of house 
painters and decorators and when you had 
reached the ship, even though you saw the water 
coming in over the gunwales would you begin 
to paint the ship in true Louis Fourteenth or 
Fifteenth style? Would you make the white 
panels still whiter? Would you put on the gild- 
ing and the^gold leaf? Would you say, ^^On with 
the song and the dance?" Would you tell any- 
body your great hope was to save the ship, then 
continue to put on paint and gold leaf? 

Surely you would not. 

No ! you would leap into that lifeboat. You 
would gather your sturdy men about you. You 
would take life lines and life preservers. 
When you reached the deck of the ship you 
would go into the saloon where a lot of women 
might be found dawdling over a game of 
bridge, and you would cry out to them warn- 
ingly, the ship was sinking and they must fly for 



398 THE BLESSED HOPE 

their lives to the boats in waiting. You would 
go into the barroom where you might find a lot 
of men drinking, mixing high balls and profan- 
ity, settling their bets on the ship's run, and 
you would cry to them, '^up and flee for your 
lives." 

God looks upon the world as a sinking ship. 

By the "world" is not meant the earth, but this 
human system, society, government and all the 
organized relations of man to man. The judg- 
ment of God is against it, already it is running 
on the rocks, the sound of the breakers may be 
heard, and there is a strain and quiver every- 
where throughout the length and breadth of it. 
The tide is rising higher and just as in the days 
of Noah, God will suddenly loose the whole 
flood of long withheld judgment and sweep away 
the present order of things, sweeping it away 
forever. 

He is not calling the Church to go and better 
the world, to paint it, decorate it, make it more 
beautiful and attractive, leading men more than 
ever to boast of it, glory in it. 



THE BLESSED HOPE 399 

The Church is not here to deceive herself with 
the idea that the world can be saved as it now is. 

God is commanding the Church to save men 
out of it, to get them out of the old creation in 
Adam and get them into the new creation in 
Christ, get them out of the old system of the 
flesh into the new and eternal system of the 
Spirit. 

No! the hope held out to the Church is not 
the conversion of the world by the preaching of 
the Gospel. 

To hold out that hope is to play the Church 
into the hands of the Devil. 

It shuts men's eyes to the terrific fact that God 
has already passed sentence upon the world ; that 
He has said this present system shall come to a 
cataclysmic end, "the world passeth away, and 
the lust thereof." It shuts the eyes of men to the 
fact that the death of Christ is not only a sacri- 
fice for sin, but a crime, a murder of murders 
and must be answered for by the world as such. 

Holding out the hope of a world converted by 
the Gospel blinds men's eyes to the analysis God 
has given of it 



400 THE BLESSED HOPE 

Listen to the analysis: 

"All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, 
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is 
not of the Father, but is of the world." 

And these three things, lust of the flesh, lust 
of the eyes and pride of life God says, really, 
fundamentally constitute the world. 

Take them away and the world as we see it 
fades from view, its activities and its "progress" 
come to an end. 

The hope that the Church is to win the world 
for Christ through the Gospel blinds men to the 
unbroken testimony of the Holy Spirit that as 
the age draws to its consummation there shall be 
"perilous times," "a form of godliness, but deny- 
ing the power thereof," and increasingly marked 
departure from spiritual things and the ways of 
God. 

The hope of a world converted by the Gospel 
leads men to ignore such unmistakable and 
dynamic warning and to paint for themselves the 
vision of a world to be made growingly better. 
It leads men to talk about the triumph of de- 



THE BLESSED HOPE 401 

mocracy, the elevation and brotherhood of man, 
the establishment of free and righteous govern- 
ment, the abolition of war. It leads the preacher 
unconsciously and involuntarily to fellowship 
every effort of this nature. It leads him to turn 
his pulpit into a platform for prohibition, for 
purer politics. More and more he identifies 
himself and his Church with the life that now is. 
Every day he seeks to congratulate himself and 
all who hear him that the world is marching on 
to the purple and the gold of millennial days; 
and yet, all the while the shadow of Anti-Christ 
is growing, unbelief is hiding itself under at- 
tractive and deceptive forms, the thunder of the 
surf grows louder and the judicial forces in the 
hand of God are being assembled for the awful 
blow that shall awake a Devil-fooled world to 
its final doom. 

If there has been a false hope held out to the 
Church corporately, an equally false hope has 
been held out to the Christian individually. 

The Christian has been taught that Heaven 
was his hope, and that he could get there only by 



402 THE BLESSED HOPE 

way of death, the undertaker, the shroud, and 
the grave. 

When I came to New York many years ago I 
went round the city looking at the different 
church buildings. I looked, naturally, to find 
the names of pastors. I could not find them. 
No matter what church building there was but 
one name upon all the structures, some of them 
massive and splendid, and that name always in 
largest letters and with wealth of gilding was 
the name of the undertaker. It appeared to be 
so settled the way to Heaven was alone by the 
graveyard that the undertaker seemed to be 
the most important personage next to death in 
the service and value of the Church. The 
churches seemed like monuments dedicated to 
death, they were monumental advertisements of 
the graveyard and the funeral end of the Chris- 
tian life. The first thing I did was to have the 
name of that ubiquitous, respectable, but dis- 
mal personage taken off the walls of my church. 

Can you conceive of anything more amazingly 
inconsistent, contradictory, and discordant than 



I 



THE BLESSED HOPE 403 

to have a church erected to Him whose very 
name is life eternal, and then to have the build- 
ing v^ritten all over with the symbol of death? 

But neither death nor Heaven are held out as 
the hope of the Christian. 

* The hope held out to the Christian and the 
hope held out to the Church is the Coming of 
our Lord Jesus Christ into the air to take the 
Church up there to meet Him. 

This is proved by Saint Paul's first letter to 
the Thessalonians. He had taught them the 
Lord was coming from Heaven. He had bidden 
them wait for and expect Him. Some among 
them had died. The living were troubled lest 
the dead in Christ should miss the Coming. 

Paul writes and tells them they are not to sor- 
row over their dead as others who have no 
hope (as those, indeed, must sorrow whose dead 
do not die in Christ). The Lord is coming 
down into the air; so far from the dead in Christ 
missing that great event they will be the first to 
realize it. The Lord will raise them first, then 
the living who are alive at His Coming will be 



404 THE BLESSED HOPE 

changed and caught up together with them to 
meet the Lord. 

The apostle exhorts them to comfort one an- 
other with these words : 

They were to comfort one another with the 
words Paul, under special inspiration and par- 
ticular revelation had written them, that the 
Lord was coming to raise their dead and bring 
them all together into His presence. 

This is the hope set before them. 

This is the hope set before us. 

This is the hope of which he wrote to Titus, 
"that blessed hope." 

It is blessed because it touches this matter of 
the Christian dead. 

Last summer I drove about a great deal 
in the mountains. Sometimes the road wound 
round and up and over lifted heights, some- 
times under arching trees, by broad expanse of 
turquoise-tinted lake, through cloven ridges and 
narrow impasses where rivulets rippled in 
drowsy murmurs or noisy babble over rocky beds 
and deeper rivers slipped in silence to the wait- 



THE BLESSED HOPE 405 

ing valleys far beyond ; but wherever I drove, by 
lane or beaten highway I saw the memorial of 
the dead, in lonely churchyard, in family burial 
plot, in more extended cemetery near town and 
village. The larger the town, the larger and 
whiter the city of the'Uead and the old sorrowful 
refrain came to my mind : 

'They that dwell upon the earth are but a 
handful ^ 

To those who sleep within its breast." 

But I said softly, "Thank God, the day is 
coming when the dead shall hear a voice and 
rise, the day when death shall be defeated, and a 
grave never more be dug nor filled with human 
kind." 

That hour of resurrection triumph will be at 
the Coming of the Lord. 

There are three records in the New Testa- 
ment wherein the story is told how Jesus raised 
the dead: the young maid who had just died, 
the young man on his way to burial, and Laza- 
rus four days dead and corrupting. 



406 THE BLESSED HOPE 

In each of these cases the dead was raised at 
the Coining of the Lord, 

The daughter of Jairus was dead and the fa- 
ther's heart was broken. 

Jesus came. He entered the house where all 
were mourning. He said, "She is not dead, but 
sleepeth." They laughed Him to scorn. He 
put them all out (as He will put out of His 
house and shut out of His kingdom all who 
mock or make light of Him). He took the 
young girl by the hand and bade her rise, and 
straightway she rose and walked. 

A funeral procession was just turning out of 
the street of the City of Nain on its way to the 
cemetery. 

The mother walked behind the open bier. 
She wept as with bowed head she walked; for, 
this was her only son and she was a widow. 
Much people also followed, wept, and sorrowed 
in sympathy with her. 

At that moment Jesus and His disciples came 
up over the brow of the hill. He stopped the 
procession of the dead. He bade the young man 



THE BLESSED HOPE 4^7 

arise. He who was dead, in obedience to the 
master word, sat up and began to speak.* Then 
Jesus delivered him to his mother. 

Lazarus was dead. Lazarus whom Jesus 
loved. 

The sisters had sent for Him while even yet 
their brother was sick. They had warned Him 
that, he whom He loved was grievously ill. But 
Jesus waited till death came, and now He ap- 
proached the house of mourning. Martha met 
Him. She reproached Him because He had de- 
layed, because He had not come at once in an- 
swer to their earnest pleading. She said: 

"If thou hadst been here, my brother had not 
died." 

Then it was Jesus answered in those words in 
which every syllable is a symphony of love, of 
grace, of tender compassion and infinite and 
Almighty assurance; 

"I am the resurrection and thf^ life: he that 
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live." 

He goes to the grave. 



40 8 THE BLESSED HOPE 

He tells them to roll away the stone. 

He bids them do this because it is in their 
power to do it, and because the eternal and all- 
powerful God will never do what we can and 
what we are responsible to do. 

Then with a loud voice He bids Lazarus 
come forth ; and he that was dead, heard, lived, 
and came forth, but bound hand and foot with 
grave clothes. 

And again Jesus bids them do what they could 
do and what because of it He had no need to do, 
to loose Lazarus, unbind the grave clothes and 
let him go (and in this the Lord illustrates the 
work into which the Church is called after the 
sinner has been spiritually raised through hear- 
ing the voice of the Lord in the Gospel — loosen- 
ing the converted soul from the bonds of spirit- 
ual death, teaching him the truth; as it is writ- 
ten: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
shall make you free." Unless rightly taught the 
quickened and saved soul, like Lazarus, remains 
bound, can neither see, use the hands, nor walk 
aright. Teaching must come after the Gospel — 
it is loosing and letting go). 



THE BLESSED HOPE 409 

In each of these cases the dead was raised by 
the Personal Coming of the Lord, 

It is by the Coming of the Lord, and by the 
Coming of the Lord alone that the dead in 
Christ will be raised. 

If the Lord do not come Himself the dead 
in Christ will never be raised, resurrection will 
never take place. 

There is not the slightest warrant in the Word 
of God to hope for the resurrection of the Chris- 
tian dead apart from the Second, personal Com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Take the Second Coming out of the Book and 
you pack the grave clods down hard and fast 
upon the head of your hopelessly dead. 

Take the Second Coming of Christ out of the 
New Testament and there is not one word of 
hope you can hold out that the Christian dead 
will ever be anything more than disembodied 
ghosts. 

Even though they be in Heaven and with the 
Lord, so long as their bodies lie mouldering in 
the earth and part of its wind-blown dust their 



410 THE BLESSED HOPE 

victory over death is only partial. The victory 
of Christ over death is only partial. The Devil 
who is the ^^strong man armed" (armed with the 
law which says it is appointed unto men once 
to die) holds them as his "goods'' in his "house" 
of the grave. Not only that, but in so far as the 
Christian dead are concerned the Lord does not 
become for them the "resurrection and the life" 
He claimed; on the contrary, He becomes an 
amazing concrete of contradiction; for, while 
Himself a risen, immortal man, His resurrec- 
tion and immortality seals of His own complete 
triumph over death, He is surrounded by 
ghostly beings whose bodies purchased by His 
blood He has not raised and whose bodiless es- 
tate bears witness that His redemption for them 
has not been complete; an incompleteness all the 
more emphasized by His own risen, immortal 
body. Nay! every moment that this risen body 
flashes forth its splendor, it proves the incom- 
pleteness of those for whom He died and testifies. 
The Devil has cut His victory in two and divided 
even honors with Him. O, no, Christians as 



THE BLESSED HOPE 41 1 

eternal ghosts in Heaven with Christ do not be- 
come His glory but dishonor. 

Because Christ is surely Coming a Second 
time and that Coming means the deliverance of 
the body of the dead Christian ; because it means 
the Christian's complete redemption from the 
power of death; because it means the revelation 
of the Christian in an immortal glorified body' 
like His own, the Coming of the Lord is right- 
eously and logically held out as the blessed hope, 
both to the Church and individual Christian. 

Not only are the Christian dead to be raised, 
but Christians living in that hour are to be 
changed, transfigured, made deathless, incor- 
ruptible, immortal. 

In a moment, at the Coming of the Lord the 
wrinkles will disappear from the brow of age, 
the sick will be cured, health will leap through 
every vein and youth immortal shall clothe each 
changed, transfigured and translated saint. 

This is the hope held out to us. 

Blessed, indeed, or, as it means, "happy" is 
this hope held out to us. 



412 THE BLESSED HOPE 

It means our gathering together on the plains 
of light, our reunion, and our knowing one an^ 
other in His presence. 

If He were to come to-night the first one I 
should seek would be my father. I believed in 
him when I did not believe in God. He stood 
between me and the world for years. For long 
years he stood there; and when I went forth 
from his roof to make my way he laid his hand 
upon my shoulder and with depth of love in his 
tender, but never lowered eyes he said (and do 
you think eternity will ever make me forget it) 
he said, ^'My son, if it does not go right with 
you; if things are not as you hope them to be, 
remember so long as I live you have a home." 
And I banked on that. It gave me strength to 
stand and courage and hope in many an hour of 
loneliness and sad perplexity. 

If the Lord were to come to-night and take 
me into the upper city I would go straight up to 
that father and tell him all over again the love 
he knows I bear him. Do you think I would 
make my mother merely a second? Impossible! 



THE BLESSED HOPE 41 3 

She would be there and I would put my arms 
about them both, and how much I would thank 
her; for, I am here to-night and preach because 
she greatly prayed me into this ministry. I 
never sought it. I shut the door upon it. I 
turned away from it and would none of it, but 
her prayer helped to swing the door wide open 
and I entered into that ministry wherein the 
Lord Himself had called me and with strong 
compelling hand had bid me enter. 

But to-night if I were lifted up into that glory 
place within the vail and looked about upon all 
the shining host of the blood-redeemed and 
looked, and looked in vain and could not recog- 
nize either my father or my mother, what mean- 
ing think you would there be in the apostle's 
words exhorting me to be comforted with the 
thought the Lord is Coming and that I shall be 
caught up with the risen and transfigured dead? 
What comfort would there be in his words for 
me? Surely none. Nay! Those words would 
be but meaningless mockery and bitterness of 
disappointment he himself had wrought and 



414 THE BLESSED HOPE 

made. But, since he was honest and his words 
are the inspiration of the Holy Ghost this prom- 
ise of our Lord's return and our reunion in His 
presence carries in the heart of it the assurance 
that we shall meet and know each other then. 

But we are left to no induction, no conjec- 
tural or presumptive conclusion, for the apostle 
writes : 

''Then (that is, when the Lord comes) then 
shall I know even as I am known." 

There will be cognition as well as recognition. 
We shall know the generations old. I shall 
know Abel who first from afar through his 
bleeding lamb saw the bleeding and Heaven 
ordained victim on the cross. I shall know 
Abraham, who had faith to go whither he knew 
not because he trusted that the God who had 
called him would also lead him. I shall see and 
know Moses, he who stood amid the flaming 
glories of Sinai's cloud-capped height and saw 
the finger of God write the law on tables of stone. 
I shall see David whose harp strings have evoked 
the songs that have filled a world with hope and 



THE BLESSED HOPE 415 

consolation. I shall see and know Simon Peter, 
who drew his sword to defend his Lord, and 
John, who leaned upon the Master's breast. I 
shall see Paul, glorious, much suffering, Paul. 
I shall see and know the martyrs of succeeding 
years; such as Zwingli and Huss, a Savonarola 
who walked to the cruel stake with quiet dignity 
amid the falling tears and quivering hearts of 
a silent, grief-stricken city; Cranmer, Latimer, 
and Ridley, who amid the piled up, burning 
fagots and from their tortured bodies kindled a 
flame of faith and undying devotion for God. I 
I shall know the Wesley brothers and Whitfield 
and see again, but glorified, the Moody, who 
filled the eyes of men with tears and led them 
with no burlesque speech nor clownish platform 
tricks, but a sweet, old-time Gospel and a plead- 
ing, Christ-filled spirit to the Master's feet. 

It is a blessed hope because it means the 
Church, all genuine Christians, shall be deliv- 
ered from the hour and horror of the Great 
Tribulation, which with swift and steady stride 
is coming on the earth, 



41 6 THE BLESSED HOPE 

Everywhere we are told from pulpit and 
from press the world is growing better and 
that days of peace and prosperity are about to 
fill the earth. Everywhere men have been cry- 
ing peace and safety. 

But the sons of God and all His apostles lift 
up their voices and warn against the fallacy and 
folly of those who talk peace when there can be 
no peace. 

The Son of God Himself talks in terms of 
war and rumors of war, of famine, pestilence, 
and earthquake, of lawlessness multiplied, Sa- 
tanic powers and miracles. He speaks of an 
hour when the heavens shall seem to fall, the 
earth to shiver and tremble as a cottage shaken 
by the storm, the sea and the waves roaring, the 
doors of the unseen world wide flung, distress of 
nations with perplexity and men's hearts failing 
them for fear for looking after the things that 
are coming on the earth ; everywhere confusion, 
conflict and all the loosened might of wrong and 
cataclysmic climaxes in the closing hours of a 
cataclysmic and catastrophic age ; a time so ter- 



THE BLESSED HOPE 417 

rible none has ever been like it nor ever shall be 
again ; a time so terrible that unless those days 
were actually shortened no flesh should live. 

The Coming of the Lord means the deliver- 
ance of the Church from all that. 

You will find the scenic proof and demonstra- 
tion of this in the book of the Revelation. 
In the fourth chapter John is caught up to 
Heaven at the sound of a trumpet voice as the 
representative and figure of the translation of 
the Church at the Coming of the Lord. In the 
fourth and fifth chapters the Church is seen un- 
der the symbol of twenty-four kingly and 
priestly elders enthroned in Heaven. From the 
sixth chapter to the nineteenth chapter you have 
a picture of the tribulation, the woe on earth and 
the mad course of the Devil incarnate Anti- 
Christ. Not once in all these chapters, not in a 
single line nor by the most faint and shadowy 
suggestion of the smallest fraction of an infer- 
ential hint can you see even the first outline of 
the Church on earth; on the contrary, in the 
thirteenth chapter and sixth verse you have a 



41 8 THE BLESSED HOPE 

dynamic and corroborative declaration that dur- 
ing all this time the translated Church is in 
Heaven, 

In the sixth verse it is written: 

"And he (the beast, the Anti-Christ) opened 
his mouth in blasphemy against God to blas- 
pheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them 
that dwell in heaven/* 

The last conjunctive particle ''and" is not in 
the Greek text. It should be omitted. The 
clause then properly would read: 

"His tabernacle, them that dwell in heaven." 

The tabernacle of God is the dwelling place 
or habitation of God. 

The Church is the dwelling place or habita- 
tion of God ; as it is written : 

"In whom ye also (Christians at Ephesus) 
are builded (are being builded) together for an 
habitation of God through the Spirit.'' 

The sixth v^rse of Revelation thirteenth 
therefore paints the picture of the fruitless fury 
of the Beast, the Anti-Christ, against the Church, 
and the security of the Church at that moment 
because dwelling in Heaven, 



THE BLESSED HOPE 419 

The twelfth chapter shows us the Devil cast 
out of the heavens and down on the earth, the 
thirteenth chapter shows us the Church taken 
out of the earth and enthroned in Heaven. 

The Coming of Christ takes us out of the earth 
and puts us in Heaven ; so that as Christians we 
shall not go through nor even enter the edge of 
the Great Tribulation. 

And because this is so the Coming of Christ 
for His Church is above all others, the blessed 
hope. 

It is a blessed hope because it means immor' 
tality. 

In Scripture the words "immortal," "immor- 
tality" are not applied to the soul, but to the 
body. They mean a deathless, incorruptible, 
pneumatical body. 

They mean lifting man into the place God in- 
tended he should have. 

Look at man as you see him now, sick, faint- 
ing, fallen down, and dying. The other day as 
I passed one of the great cemeteries I said, 
musingly, "What mighty mental powers have 



420 THE BLESSED HOPE 

gone down into the ground there, minds that 
moved forces, wills that controlled vast enter- 
prises, moulded and shaped destinies. Is that 
the best God could do? set such powers to work 
in frail and easily shattered bodies, let them 
break, turn to dust, the spirit disappear and 
seem to be no more?" 

Nay! the revelation of God's real and infinite 
purpose shall be seen in the immortal bodies 
Jesus will give us when He shall come again. 
Each body shall be a storage battery, all the laws 
and hidden forces of the universe shall be con- 
centrated in such a body. The nexus shall be 
the will. The immortal Christian shall speak 
and it shall be done. He will command and it 
shall stand fast. In this we shall be like the Son 
of God Himself. We shall be masters whether 
on land or sea or in the air. 

Blessed is this hope of a coming Lord, coming 
for those who are His. 

Blessed because it will lift the Church into 
the place of associated power and rulership with 
Christ over the world. 



THE BLESSED HOPE 42 1 

For two thousand years the Church has tried 
to rule the world. 

The Roman Church tried it, became apostate 
and failed, became political and unspiritual, at- 
tempted to win by stake, by blood, and .torture, 
and not by grace and truth; by blood and tor- 
ture till scarlet became the fitting color her 
priesthood wears. 

The world rose up, broke the shackles and for 
a while refused to hear her speak. 

Then the Protestant Church dreamed that by 
the Gospel it could lay hold of the world and 
bring it in due submission to its will. It failed. 
Then it entered into partnership with civiliza- 
tion, education, and human culture. It modified 
its ancient theology, it cut out some pages from 
the Bible, got rid of miracles, repudiated full 
inspiration and turning itself into a system of 
ethical culture and competitive morality has 
hoped to win the world by coming down to the 
level of its materialistic naturalism. 

And here it has utterly, derisively and de- 
servedly failed. 



42 2 THE BLESSED HOPE 

Neither owned of God nor much respected by 
the world it is fast traveling to that Laodicean 
threshold where the Son of God has threatened 
to spew it out of His mouth. 

The Church while down here cannot rule the 
world. 

It is incapable of ruling the world, not only 
because Christ the living Head is still a rejected 
King and exile from His covenant throne, but 
because between us and the line of light which 
breaks like whitened surf of wide sea splendor 
against the black and sunless void surround- 
ing this earth, there is a hierarchy of evil 
spirits; so that the apostle has said, ^We wrestle 
not with flesh and blood," as did the Israelites 
when they sought to gain possession of the 
Promised Land, but with wicked spirits in the 
atmospheric heavens. These spirits dwelling in 
that zone of darkness are called ^'Kosmokrdtoras 
Tous Skotous Toutouf' '^The world rulers of 
(or from) this darkness." They are under the 
leadership of him whom our Lord calls, "the 
prince of this world," and who is none other than 



THE BLESSED HOPE 423 

"that old serpent which is called the Devil and 
Satan." Under him and governed by his 
subtle wisdom they stand behind the thrones of 
kings, of emperors and the chairs of presidents, 
dictate the policy of cabinets, inspire confusion, 
complication and war among the nations. The 
Apostle John in vision sees three of them going 
forth to gather the nations to that final world- 
wide war rendezvous at Har Mageddon. 

No matter what attitude the Church may take, 
no matter how spiritually it may live, this is an 
age when Satanic power will send abroad those 
forces which will array themselves now in open 
wickedness and anon as angels of light against 
divine rule and Heaven's ways of righteousness. 

The Church is not here to rule the world but 
to protest against it. It bears the same relation 
to the world to-day as did the ministry of Noah. 
We are told that he "being warned of God of 
things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared 
an ark to the saving of his house; by the which 
he condemned the world/' 

The ark was a warning of coming judgment 



424 THE BLESSED HOPE 

from the hand of God, a protest against sin and 
unbelief; and by so much as it stood for the 
saving of men out of the wojld, condemned the 
world. 

Such is the responsibility and should be the 
attitude and function of the Church. 

The Church is here to save men out of the 
world; by so much it is a protest against it as a 
system, condemns it and is a witness, God has 
ordained it shall pass away. 

For the Church to assume the place of ruler- 
ship while the Lord is an exile from His own 
particular throne would be open treason to Him. 
It would be as much treason as though a queen 
should attempt to rule while her husband was 
^'despised and rejected" as king. Such an at- 
tempt would be proof that she had not only 
parted company from himself, but had rejected 
his principles. 

A church in the place of world pomp, power, 
and glory would be proof irresistible that she had 
forgotten the faith of Him whose name she 
wears; had forgotten that He walked this earth 



THE BLESSED HOPE 425 

a pilgrim and a stranger, a faithful witness of 
coming judgment; and that it was He who has 
said : 

"As the days of Noah were, so shall also the 
coming of the Son of man be." 

No! this is not the hour of Church rulership. 

With keen and spirit-inspired arraignment 
the apostle rebukes the Church at Corinth be- 
cause they thought the hour of world rulership 
had come. He says : 

''Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have 
reigned as kings without us: and I would to 
God ye did reign, that we also might reign with 
you." 

Then he goes on to show that so far from 
reigning and ruling in the world he and the 
apostles were suffering from the evil and perse- 
cution of the world. He says : 

"For I think that God hath set forth us the 
apostles last, as it were appointed unto death: 
for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and 
to angels, and to men. 

"We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are 



426 THE BLESSED HOPE 

wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; 
ye are honorable, but we are despised. 

"Even unto this present hour we both hunger, 
and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and 
have no certain dwelling place; 

"And labour, working with our own hands: 
being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we 
suffer it. 

"Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as 
the filth of the world, and are the off scouring of 
all things unto this day." 

Surely there is no royal rulership in this; nor 
can there be till the Lord comes. The rulership 
of the Church is coincident with the Coming of 
the Lord, 

When He comes to reign, when He appears 
in glory as King of kings, then as a Queen the 
Church will appear with Him and reign over 
the world in glory; wherefore it is written: 

"If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." 

Not till after the Church is taken to Heaven 
does she take up the triumphant song of antici- 
pated rulership. 



THE BLESSED HOPE 427 

In the fifth chapter of the Revelation where 
the Church is seen translated to Heaven and 
dwelling there under the figure of the twenty- 
four elders, and at the moment when the Lord 
takes the title deeds to the kingdom and is about 
to break the seals and send down the judgment 
which precedes His appearing, the Church 
breaks forth into this exultant announcement, 
this new, new song of redemption and rule : 

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou 
(the once slain Lamb, the risen Lord) art 
worthy to take the book, and to open the seals 
thereof : for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed 
us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, 
and tongue, and people, and nation ; 

"And hast made us unto our God kings and 
priests: and we shall reign on (over) the 
earth." 

When He shall appear to take to Himself His 
great power and reign, the Church shall be en- 
throned in light. Then shall she rule with Him. 
Where now the world walks in the spiritual 
darkness of this hierarchy of evil, then will It 



428 THE BLESSED HOPE 

walk in the light of the exalted and glorified 
Church of Christ, the Church of the first born 
ones. 

All this is consequent upon the Coming of the 
Lord into the air to take the Church up to Him- 
self in the Holy City. 

Blessed, indeed, is this hope set before us, be- 
cause the result of it will be the manifestation 
and* complete revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ 
as ^^our great God and Saviour/' 

We shall see Him as — Our great God, 

When I was a stranger to Him; when I knew 
Him not and was filled with questions I could 
not answer and none could answer for me ; when 
there was no rest and peace ; when the universe 
seemed a huge mistake or a fearful and brutal 
thing crushing me at every turn wherever I 
lifted and posed an investigating thought, I said 
within myself had I the fashioning of a God, 
He should be human, with a human heart 
and human understanding, with capacity to enter 
into my sorrows, my perplexities and cares, and, 
at the same time a God who should have all 



THE BLESSED HOPE 4^9 

power to match and fulfill the promises He 
should make to me. 

I did not know then, I did not understand, 
this was, indeed, the very God who had en- 
tered the earth and died for men, the God who 
now sits on yonder throne in glorified and in- 
finite humanity. 

We shall see Him with His perfect, immortal 
humanity, the center of the effulgent deity that 
is His and clothes Him, very God of very God, 
real man, true and everlasting God and everlast- 
ing man. 

Everlasting God, our human and divine 
Saviour! 

The Saviour who gave Himself to die for us. 

Paul will kneel at His feet and cry: 

"Thou lovedst me and gavest thyself for me." 

And I shall say that, and ten thousand times 
ten thousand and thousands of thousands shall 
say that and fling their tribute of praise and 
adoration before Him as when ingots of gold 
are flung into the treasury of a king. 

Not only this, but the Church, as a Church, 



430 THE BLESSED HOPE 

shall take part in the manifestation of His glory; 
as it is written: 

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, 
then shall ye also appear with him in glory." 

When He appears in glory, He will appear 
from Heaven. 

When the Church appears with Him in glory, 
she also, must appear from Heaven, 

Before the Church can appear from Heaven 
she must be caught up into Heaven, 

She is caught up to meet the Lord when He 
descends into the air ; as it is written : 

"We which are alive and remain, shall be 
caught up together with them (the risen, Chris- 
tian dead) in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
the air/' 

This being caught up to meet the Lord in the 
air is declared by the Holy Spirit officially, 
to be: 

"Our gathering together unto Him." 

Our gathering together to meet Him in the 
air in the very nature of the case takes place be- 
fore we can appear with Him in glory. 



THE BLESSED HOPE 431 

The Coming of Christ into the air to gather 
the Church to Himself previous to His ap- 
pearing in glory is, strictly speaking, the actual, 
preeminent, blessed hope of the Church. The 
appearing in glory is made a conjunctive part 
of it and the statement of the text reads : "That 
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing," be- 
cause the glorious appearing (appearing of the 
glory) is included in and (although a distinct 
stage of it) is a resultant part of the Blessed 
Hope. 

It is because of this blessed (happy) fact that 
Christ is coming first for the Church that we 
shall appear with Him in the glory. 

The glory! Who can describe it? 

What words, or forms, or symbols can re- 
veal it. 

Take suns and systems, take the twelve thou- 
sand millions of suns (suns alone) that are 
spread within the radii of the telescope; take 
all the suns and their circling and depend- 
ent systems, all the universe, and focus them 
into one colorful fusion of astral splendor; 



432 THE BLESSED HOPE 

turn all the clouds into shekinal chariots; 
gather all the unnumbered and innumerable an- 
gels of the unnumbered worlds in our Father's 
house and concentrate the coruscation of their 
blinding beauty, the illumination of their kingly 
faces ; take all the songs that have been sung by 
them over every repentent soul on earth ; let the 
earth lift up its voice from all its hills and vales ; 
let the sea bid "the white priesthood" of its 
waves to kneel on every shore and chant in foam 
written hallelujahs; let all the wide, measure- 
less spaces, the endless, infinite extensions sound 
the music of their ever rolling spheres in such 
inwrought and perfect unison that earth and the 
inhabitants thereof shall hear the farthest and 
the faintest accent; then let the Son of God 
come forth in all His personal and essential 
glory now for the first time fully revealed, until 
sun and moon and stars shall pale and all beauty 
fade and there remain but one vision of visions 
to fill earth and Heaven: till His face and His 
alone be seen, and His voice be heard as the 
sound of many waters, mightier than all the 



THE BLESSED HOPE 433 

sounding waters of all the seven seas when lifted 
and flung with crashing, tempestuous thunders 
on every rock-bound shore ; then let the Church, 
the saints of all the ages be seen with Him, re- 
flecting Him as the moon reflects the sun, but 
when the light of the moon shall be as the light 
of the sun, and the light of the sun is seven-fold 
as the light of seven days ; and then when all has 
been done and all words in all the best speech of 
man have been used to describe it, the very 
words themselves shall break and be as dust, and 
every phrase shall be as a beggar pleading for 
better garmenting and richer form to hide his 
nakedness; because no word can describe, no 
tongue can speak the glory of that wondrous 
hour when Jesus and His blood redeemed, spirit 
regenerated, and exalted Church shall come 
forth to reign. 

This, and all the glories that are to follow are 
the consequence of the Blessed Hope. 

But, not only does grace set the hope before 
us, it teaches us the attitude to take as Christians 
now, in respect to that hope. 



434 THE BLESSED HOPE 

It teaches us to be ^'expecting," to be ready 
and waiting in our day as though, at any mo- 
merit, the Lord might come. 

Human wisdom does not teach that. 

Human wisdom and human conceit will give 
us calendars and dates and times, bidding us be 
busy with them and not with Him. 

But we are to be '^expecting" the Lord. That 
is the meaning of the word, ^'looking." 

What utter betrayal of language, what sheer 
and shameful accusation it brings against the 
apostle, nay, against the Holy Ghost Himself 
who inspired the apostle, to say ^'expecting'' 
this hope means we are to be looking for signs, 
for predicted events, studying the map, figuring 
out times and seasons, putting up tribulations 
and wars, even the thickness of a shadow between 
ourselves and the Coming of the Lord. 

If ^'expecting" the blessed hope does not 
mean the Lord may come to make good that 
hope while we are expecting, then has the apos- 
tle deceived us wilfully, cruelly, brutally, or 
himself has been helplessly deceived and the 



THE BLESSED HOPE 435 

whole scheme and concept of the Blessed Hope 
falls to the ground as a worthless delusion and 
contemptible snare. 

If the word, ''looking," "expecting," means 
anything within the range and realm of human 
intelligence and decent, undeniable sincerity, it 
means— IMMINENCY. 

It means, expecting the Lord Himself as the 
Hope which makes hoping for Him — blessed. 

It means logically and legitimately living 
from day to day in the confidence and the hope 
He might come any day. 

Grace teaches us to rise above every hin- 
drance, every object that may be thrust in the 
way. 

I knew a wife who waited for the coming of 
her husband, and when trains failed to bring 
him and time passed and wise people shook their 
heads and said it was no longer worth while to 
wait, she continued to wait and expect. He had 
bidden her to watch for his return any day. 
Love and hope and yearning desire for him 
taught her to wait and expect. And at last, in 



436 THE BLESSED HOPE 

spite of all the clear deductions against his any 
day coming, he came at last and her expectation 
was fulfilled; not only fulfilled, but all the 
while she waited, and hoped and yearned and 
loved, there had deepened in her heart her sense 
of all he was to her, her need of him ; so that, 
in the hour of fulfillment she was able to pour 
forth the long-pent-up wealth and worth of her 
waiting and expectant love. 

Grace teaches us to hold that attitude toward 
the Blessed Hope. 

It teaches us to hold it as — a hope, not merely 
as a doctrine. 

It is doctrine and is true whether you hold it 
or reject it; but grace will tgach you to hold it 
as a hope; to hold it as a hope deep down in 
your very soul, hoping every day that in that day 
it may be realized for you. 

He who treats it simply as a doctrine, soon 
loses it as a hope, and presently will be occupied 
in finding reasons why it will not come in his 
day, or must be delayed many days. 

Listen to the teachers who deny it as an any 



THE BLESSED HOPE 437 

day possibility or hope and you will find the 
thought of the Coming of the Lord does not af- 
fect or shape their daily lives. 

They are simply doctrinaires, not those who 
mould and fashion their lives by daily hope. 

But mark, I pray you, the benefit of this hope 
to those who hold it as such. 

It is as an helmet ; so it is written : 

"But let us, who are of the day (Christians, 
saved people), be sober, putting on the breast- 
plate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the 
hope of salvation/' 

What is the salvation for which as Christians, 
as saved people, we are to hope? 

Surely, after having just written to the Thes- 
salonians that they were "children of light" and 
therefore saved (as he says corroboratively, in- 
cluding himself with them, "God has not ap- 
pointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation/') 
in speaking of the *^hope' of salvation the apostle 
could not have intended to raise any question of 
uncertainty in respect to \ht\x present salvation. 

What then does he mean by "hope of salva- 
tion?" 



438 THE BLESSED HOPE 

The answer is to be found in his epistle to the 
Romans. He says : 

'^Now is our salvation nearer than when we 
believed. 

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand/' 

He is speaking of the salvation which will 
come in the Day of Christ; and as the day of 
Christ begins with the Coming of Christ for His 
Church, then the salvation hoped for is that 
which will take place at the Coming of Christ. 

That salvation is not in respect to the soul, but 
— the body. 

Salvation is threefold: for us, in us and 
upon us. 

For us — on the cross. 

In us — by regeneration. 

Upon us — by the resurrection of the bodies of 
the Christian dead, and the transfiguration of 
the bodies of the Christian living. 

This salvation of the body unto immortality is 
accomplished at the Coming of the Lord for 
His Church; and as the Coming of the Lord is 
— the blessed hope of the Church, then the Com- 



THE BLESSED HOPE 439 

ing of the Lord to deliver, immortalize and save 
the bodies of those who form the Church is the 
salvation the apostle bids us to hope for, and 
which he declares is as an helmet. 

You know the Greek and Roman helmet! 

With that great high ridge running through 
the center of the casque the blow of sword or 
spear fell slanting and glanced away an in- 
efficient, harmless stroke. 

Just so I have this blessed hope as though 
there were an helmet on my head. 

All sorts of blows come, questions and prob- 
lems that cannot be solved and ever return, de- 
manding and insisting on solution: the question 
of sin, of culture, of education, of life and 
death, of the being and character of God in the 
face of human sin, suffering and woe; a thou- 
and askings that find no answer. Questions, 
which, if persisted in would crush the brain, 
break the heart and leave you mad with cursing, 
agony, and despair; but all these questions 
and their insidious poison strokes fall harmlessly 
on my head; for, at once, I answer, every ques- 



440 THE BLESSED HOPE 

tion, every problem, every difficulty in life will 
be settled in the twinkling of an eye by the Com- 
ing of the Lord. 

What hope have I when I look out upon all 
the mystery, misery, sorrow, anguish, shame, and 
wrong, and all the helplessness of man to meet 
and settle things? 

You ask that? 

When I see the costly breakdown and failure 
of government in the hand of man; when I see 
the rending and tearing to pieces of the banner 
of civilization and learn that culture is a thin 
veneer that for a moment hides the brute beast 
in human kind — what hope have I? 

What hope have I when I see a world to-day 
soaked in blood and tears, and ghastly horror 
keeping vigil at the blackened hearthstones of 
one time happy homes? 

What hope have I, you ask, in the midst of 
all this? 

I answer: 

The Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

That is my hope, that is the one thing that will 



THE BLESSED HOPE 44 1 

solve the problems and bring eternal rest for a 
tumult tossed and troubled world. 

That is my hope and this hope the Holy Spirit 
writes is — blessed. 

It is an helmet which saves my head, my 
brain, my heart from all the questioning, mad- 
dening blows, keeps me sound and sane, stand- 
ing steadfast and with peace, even where con- 
flicts rage. 

Mark the benefit of holding this Coming of 
the Lord as an imminent fact and hope: 

It is written : 

"And every one that hath this hope in (upon) 
him purifieth himself, even as he is pure!* 

You know if you found yourself in the pres- 
ence of some one very courteous, very refined, of 
finished manners and discoverd you were not so 
well equipped and furnished, when you retired 
to the privacy of your own home you would take 
yourself to strict account and determine when 
next you met you would seek to stand on equal 
plane. You would make an effort in that di- 
rection. 



442 THE BLESSED HOPE 

Hold this Coming of the Lord as an actual 
hope within your soul. Say within your inmost 
self you wish He would come; fall on your 
knees and pray; with the Spirit and the Bride 
say, ''Come," lift up the closing prayer, the last 
recorded prayer of Holy Scripture: "Even so, 
come, Lord Jesus;" do this and mean it sin- 
cerely, and sooner or later you will find that al- 
most unconsciously and involuntarily you are 
seeking to purify yourself from evil thought and 
impulse, making whole-souled and earnest en- 
deavor to be clean, to be true within, to live upon 
the Christly plane. 

You put on your best garments for an expected 
guest. 

Expect Christ and you will clothe yourself 
with holiness, with purity and truth. 

Hold this Coming of the Lord as an actual 
hope and it will inspire you to redoubled service 
in His name. 

If you wish Him to come, if you believe He 
might come at any time, you would not be con- 
tent that He should find you doing nothing in 
His name. If you were an employee and 



THE BLESSED HOPE 443 

wasted your employer's paid for time; if he 
came and found you using that time for yourself 
alone you would be discharged and put to shame. 
To be doing nothing when the Lord comes, using 
the time He paid for with His blood for your- 
self and not for Him, you would be filled with 
the sense of shame. 

Hold this Coming as a hope, believe it really 
as the Word of God, as the Son of God Himself 
declares it to be — imminent, and you will be 
impelled to do all your hands find to do and 
with all your might. 

This blessed hope is an incentive to work, to 
serve the Lord and a quickening impulse to seek 
and save the souls of men; in short to live, to 
make tremendous effort to live and manifest the 
life of Christ. 

Where were you last night, you who profess 
to be a follower of Christ? 

Were you at the theatre, the dance, the card 
party; were you side by side with those who 
were not Christians and who, from your conver- 
sation did not know or even imagine you were 
Christians? 



444 THE BLESSED HOPE 

What if the Lord should come to-morrow? 
Who can measure the horror of awakening that 
would be yours to see these very friends and 
pleasure companions shut out to the endless woe 
and you saved in spite of all your treasonable 
inconsistency because the Lord kept faith with 
the covenant of the blood you once had claimed? 

But — listen — listen well — not all who profess, 
not all who say Lord, Lord, are saved. There 
are things which accompany salvation and those 
who are really saved have more or less of those 
accompanying things. It might be, after all, in 
spite of your profession your outbreaking in- 
consistency would prove that you were a mere 
professor and not an actual possessor; that if 
the Lord should come and you had not repented 
and changed your way you would be left behind 
with your godless company to judgment and to 
woe. 

O, if you are true, if you are genuine, if you 
really wish the Lord to come, if you believe the 
time is short, it will move you to go forth, speak 
the Word in season and lead the unsaved, the 



THE BLESSED HOPE 445 

thoughtless and the lost to a seeking Saviour's 
feet. 

And now listen to me ! 

One of the joys I anticipate in that hour when 
I shall be caught up to meet the Lord is the joy 
of meeting those who have heard me preach, 
who have believed the Word and have been 
made one with a living Christ. 

In the long years of my ministry thousands 
have thronged before me. What joy if I shall 
meet them and have them tell me that some 
simple word I uttered in the Master's name 
helped to turn their faces to the God I serve. 

But — there is sometimes a horror of black- 
ness and great darkness comes over my soul as 
I look, as I do to-night, at this great throng and 
ask myself the question — "Will all these meet 
me at the throne of peace and light inside the 
upper city's gates? or when I shall sit in asso- 
ciated judgment with the saints of God in that 
last and awful judgment hour at the Great 
White Throne, will I see some such as you who 
have heard me preach? shall I see you stand 
with downcast eyes and speechless lips, and shall 



44^ THE BLESSED HOPE 

I hear above you sound the awful word — ^^De- 
part?'' 

O, it is that I cannot bear to think upon and I 
plead with you here and now to arouse before 
too late. 

If Christ the Lord came to-night you would 
be left out to certain woe; for you there would 
be, indeed, no gleam of hope, only one long mid- 
night of starless despair. 

Turn then to Him who bids you come, He 
who in rare and gracious words has said: "Him 
that Cometh to me I will in no wise cast out;" 
who no matter what you may have been or done 
will never say you nay. 

Turn and claim the shelter of the blood and 
with those of us who hold the Blessed Hope, and 
hold it as a hope, rise to meet Him when He 
comes and be with Him and the happy company 
of the gathered saints forever more. 

Let grace then save you now, let grace teach 
you how to live and let grace lead you day by 
day to be ^^looking for that blessed hope, and 
the glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ'^ 



VII 

THE GREAT SEPARATION 



The Great Separation, 

My theme to-night is : 

"The Great separation that will take place 
when our Lord Jesus Christ comes for His 
Church." 

My texts are three in number: 

(Mat. 7: 21-23; Lu. 13: 25; Mat. 13:47, 48.) 

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; 
but he that doeth the will of My Father in 
heaven." 

"Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, 
have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in 
thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name 
done many wonderful works? 

"And then will I profess unto them, I never 
knew you; depart from me, ye that work ini- 
quity." 

"When once the master of the house is risen 
up, and hath shut to the door, saying, Lord, 
Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and 
say unto you, I know not whence ye are." 



450 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

"The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, 
that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every 
kind: 

"Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, 
and sat down, and gathered the good into ves- 
sels, but cast the bad away." 

Out of these texts I present to you four prop- 
ositions : 

1. In this age God is calling upon, and giv- 
ing an opportunity to all to profess faith in the 
name of His Son. 

2. There is a profession of Christ which gives 
all the evidences of being genuine and accept- 
able to God. 

3. There is a profession which gives no evi- 
dence of being genuine. 

4. A great separation will take place when 
our Lord Jesus Christ comes down into the air 
to receive His Church unto Himself. 

I. In this age God is calling upon and giving 
opportunity to all to profess faith in the name of 
His Son. 

The history of the world has been divided of 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 45 I 

God into distinct ages or epochs, each with its 
definite beginning and ending. 

God the Father set apart and ordained these 
ages by the pre-incarnate action of His son; as 
it is written: ^^By whom he made the worlds!* 

"Worlds" here signify and should be ren- 
dered, ''ages." 

The word "made" has the sense of "ar- 
ranged." 

By and through His Son, therefore, God the 
Father planned the successive ages of His deal- 
ing with man. In other words, the history of 
man is not an accident. It lies within the infinite 
purpose of God and moves on as He intended 
from age to age, and will steadily and surely 
move to the consummation of the age of the 
ages. 

These ages are seven in number and in each 
God acts in ways distinct and peculiar to that 
age. 

The First begins with the creation of man and 
ends with his fall and expulsion from Eden. 

It is the Edenic age, or age of Innocency. 

In it God deals with man as a creature with- 



452 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

out antecedent or predisposition, and as inno- 
cent. 

He deals with him on the basis of the tree of 
the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of 
which he is forbidden to eat. 

The issue is — Obedience to God. 

If he will obey the Word and command of 
God he shall have eternal life, an immortal 
body, he shall be enthroned of God, His visi- 
bility and incarnation. 

It is the forecast, the promise and the outline 
of The Incarnation, It is the outreach of the 
living God to become God manifest in the flesh. 

If the man disobey he shall die. He shall be 
separated from God morally and intellectually. 
The Spirit and soul shall be separated from the 
body. The body shall return to the dust from 
whence it was taken. He himself, finally, shall 
wander through endless spaces, lost forever, a 
wandering star unto whom is reserved the black- 
ness of darkness forever. 

The Devil tempts. He raises a doubt concern- 
ing the truth of God's Word. He suggests that 
man, if he eat will not die. He shall be as 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 453 

God. They shall, like God, create beings in 
their own image. They shall be independent of 
God. The woman yields, the man partakes, 
death begins and they go forth from the sunset 
side of Eden to fill the world with sin and sor- 
row and lie down at last in the grave that waits 
for them. 

The second age begins with the birth of Cain 
and ends with the flood. 

It is the Antediluvian Age, or the Age of Con- 
science. 

Adam begets a son in his own image, but it is 
the image of a fallen man. 

The woman was mistaken in the birth of Cain. 
She thought he was the promised seed, the com- 
ing deliverer. 

She gave birth to Abel, her second son. 

The first was a tiller of the earth. The second 
a keeper of sheep. 

God takes off all law. He shuts man up to 
conscience. (Conscience is not the gift of God. 
It is not His endowment. It is the logical con- 
sequence of the fall of man and comes in thereby. 



454 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

It is the self accusation of sin. It is the shadow 
of God's judgment throne on the soul.) 

Cain kills his brother. 

God sets aside the penalty for murder. 

The evil, the sin and lawlessness now inherent 
in man become so great God is forced to drown 
the whole world, all but Noah and his family, 
who are saved in and by an ark ordained of God. 

The third age begins with the going forth of 
Noah and his family from the ark and ends 
with the death of Joseph in Egypt. 

// is the Patriarchial age — from Pater, father, 
and Archon, ruler. The age of the father rulers. 

God tests man in the relation of the family. 

He sets up government in and for the family 
and rulership by the father. 

He now legislates the death penalty for mur- 
der, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall 
his blood be shed." 

Justice and righteousness are to be adminis- 
tered in the earth. 

Ordained government in the hand of man is 
given the right to take life, to magnify law, jus- 
tice and righteousness. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 45 5 

Government is based on atonement by blood 
— life for a life. The individual patriarchs 
stand for distinct and individual truth. 

Noah represents grace from God. ''Noah," 
it is written, "found grace in the eyes of the 
Lord." 

Abraham is the fruit of grace — the place and 
exercise of faith. 

Isaac is the fruit of faith, and that is — Son- 
ship. 

Jacob is the fruit of sonship — that is service 
(faith is shown by works) . 

Joseph is the fruit of service — that is, first, 
suffering, and then, glory. 

The fourth age begins with the going of the 
children of Israel out of Egypt and ends with 
the coming of John the Baptist; as it is Vv^ritten: 
"The law and the prophets were until John." 

It is the Mosaic age, or the age of the law. 

The people of Israel are chosen of God as 
His peculiar people, the one and only divine na- 
tion. They are brought nigh on the ground of 
blood. By blood they are redeemed from the 
sentence against the first-born. They are 



456 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

brought out of Egypt by the hand of power. 
They are set on their course to the promised 
land. 

At Sinai they turn away from the uncondi- 
tional covenant of Abraham which guaranteed 
them the land. They put themselves under the 
covenant of the law. 

In Israel, therefore, God is testing man na- 
tionally, in responsibility to government, and 
under bond to law. 

The fifth age begins with the baptism of our 
Lord by John in Jordan and ends at the cross. 

It is the Messianic age, or the age of God 
made visible and incarnate. 

God tests the character of the natural man by 
the supernatural character of His Son. 

Man proves himself to have the Cain spirit 
of murder. He commits deicide by slaying God 
in the person of His human as well as Divine 
Son. 

The seventh age will begin with the coming 
of Christ and all His saints from heaven to set 
up the kingdom of heaven, and will end with the 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 457 

Great White Throne, the second resurrection 
and the second death. 

This is the Millennial age, or the age of the 
kingdom. In it God tests man with a perfect 
government in the hand of a perfect and right- 
eous King. 

He looses Satan, who had been bound during 
the thousand years, that he may reveal the unre- 
generate in the kingdom. They rebel against 
God and are destroyed by fire from heaven. 

The Christless dead of all ages are judged at 
the White Throne. The death sentence pro- 
nounced in Eden finds its consummation. 
Through gates of fire the lost soul passes out a 
bodiless ghost to its eternal wanderings in unil- 
lumined space, to join the first rebels of the pre- 
Adamite race. 

The eighth and final age begins with the new 
heavens and the new earth and — never ends. 

This is the eternal state, or the age of the end- 
less years and the accomplished purpose of God 
in man. 

The earth is regenerated, created anew out of 
the womb of fire, born into a new orbit under 



45 B THE GREAT SEPARATION 

new and life-filled heavens, and becomes the 
dwelling place of man and incarnate God. 

Man is fully linked to Godhead. 

He is the multiplied and eternal incarnation 
of God. 

The fulness of the Godhead bodily is mani- 
fested in Christ. With Christ dwelling upon it 
the earth becomes the moral, governmental and 
spiritual center of the universe. Of the increase 
of the Kingdom of God and Christ, and man in 
God and Christ there shall be no end. 

The sixth age is the age in which we now live. 

It began secretly when Christ rose from the 
dead, breathed on His disciples and gave them 
the Holy Ghost. 

It began publicly on the day of Pentecost 
when the ascended Christ endued the Church 
with the power of the Holy Ghost. It will end 
secretly (and may end at any moment) by the 
coming of Christ into the air FOR His Church. 

It will end publicly when the translated 
Church shall come WITH Christ to begin the 
kingdom. 

This age differs from all which preceded it. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 459 

It differs from those which shall follow it. 

In this age God is not calling upon men to be- 
lieve in His existence as a personal God. 

There is no need that He should do so. 

In yonder nightly sky His name is written in 
each shining star. Each star is but a letter in 
the syllabication of His name. Each mountain 
peak of earth, each river slipping to the sea, the 
sea thundering on the shore, each blade of grass 
and growing, fruited tree, the succession of day 
and night, the sequence of the seasons, every- 
where the adaptation of means to an end, every- 
where the operation revealing intent, purpose, 
thought, and back of the thought the unfailing 
Thinker, the old earth flying on its course about 
the sun and returning whence it came to start 
afresh, law, order, authority, power, all pro- 
claim the living, the uncaused, the eternal, self- 
existent, self-sufficient and ever efficient God. 

There is no need to invite men to believe in a 
supreme, personal being. Only a fool in his heart 
(never in the brain) can say there is no God. 
The apostle Paul arraigns the beautiful and cor- 
rupt civilization of his day and declares its idol- 



460 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

atry, its paganism, without excuse because the 
might, the majesty and the power of God are 
seen in the work and manifestation of an all- 
surrounding creation. 

God is not calling on men to believe in the 
Holy Spirit. 

There is no need that He should. 

The operation and work of the Holy Spirit is 
manifested every day in contrast to the spirit of 
lawlessness, wickedness, evil and the mad riot 
of sin which would win its way were it not for 
the hindering and pervading presence of this 
same Holy Spirit. 

God is not dealing with men to-day on the 
issue of sin. 

He gave His estimate of man as a sinner long 
ago, as a sinner by nature and by transgression. 

He enforced His estimate by the flood which 
swept away all but the chosen and selected eight. 

He emphasized and culminated that judg- 
ment in the cross. On the cross He judged the 
natural man and his world. 

The cry of agony from the divine victim, "My 
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 461 

tells the doom which would now fall upon the 
world did not the cross hold back the individual 
judgment and permit men to live under the 
grace of a suspended sentence. 

Did God deal with man on the issue of sin 
but for a single day, all would be driven from 
His presence and the glory of His power. The 
issue now is not man^s sin — but, God^s love. 

The great, the all-important, the one supreme 
question is not the sin question at all, but — the 
Son question. 

"What think ye of Christ?" 

That is the question the Son Himself asked. 

That is the question God the Father is asking. 

"What think ye of My Son?" 

He is sending the Church out to ask that ques- 
tion. 

That is why the Church has been created, and 
this is its function and mission, to set the issue 
squarely up to every soul and ask insistently, 
probingly, "What think ye of Christ? Whose 
Son is He?" 

The Church is commanded in this age (and 
this age has been marked out and set apart that 



462 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

the Church might fulfill the command) ; the 
Church is commanded to climb the mountains, 
cross the plains, search the valleys, sail the seas, 
tread the wilderness, enter villages, towns and 
cities, and ask of every creature in all the wide 
world what each one thinks of Christ. 

By and through the Church and the Gospel 
committed to its charge God is calling on men 
to believe in His Son, to believe on Him at once 
— without delay. 

He is not asking men to believe in His Son as 
a mere man. 

He was a real man. 

He began His human life as a babe. He lay 
upon a woman's breast with a babe's need and a 
babe's weakness. He grew in strength of body, 
in stature, in knowledge and favor with men. 

He worked and toiled as a man. He wrought 
as a carpenter. He earned His bread in the 
sweat of His brow. 

He went forth at thirty years of age to preach 
the kingdom of heaven. He was led by the 
Spirit. He surrendered to the Spirit. He had 
all the experiences of men. He was tempted. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 4^3 

He was sorely tried. He hungered. He thirst- 
ed. He grew tired and weary. He endured 
poverty. The foxes had holes, the birds had 
nests. There were times when He knew not 
where to lay His head. 

He was sensitive. When they brought Him 
the woman taken in sin, He bent down to hide 
the blush upon His virgin cheek and wrote with 
His fingers in the sand the worthlessness because 
of the hypocrisy of their charge. 

He was full of sympathy. He wept at Laz- 
arus' grave. He was moved with compassion for 
the troubled and the heavy laden. He was so 
keenly sensitive that when they came to arrest 
Him, He protested, not at the arrest, but at the 
manner of it. He said He had openly taught in 
their synagogue. He had done nothing in secret. 
Why then should they come out against Him 
with lanterns and staves, as though they had 
come out against a thief? 

He drank deeply of the cup of sorrow. He 
said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto 
death." 

He died as other men die. He was wrapped 



464 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

in a shroud and laid in the grave as others are 
laid. 

He was a real man. 

The record is plain enough. 

But God is not sending the Church out speci- 
fically and supremely to demonstrate that, to ask 
men to believe that. 

He is not calling on men to believe in Him 
merely as a good man. 

He i£;«5 all that! 

He was much more than good. 

He was sinless. 

He was a sinless man. 

He stands out in contrast to natural men as a 
white, polished marble shaft might rise up out 
of the midst of a black, tossing midnight sea; as 
a white rose in the midst of scarlet poppies; as a 
song in the heart of discord; as a blue space of 
quiet sky in the midst of encircling, storm-swept 
clouds; as a smile of love in contrast to a face 
of hate. He challenged those who knew Him 
best, who came in contact with Him every day, 
who knew all His goings out and coming in, 
what He was in private and what He was be- 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 465 

fore the crowds that followed Him, to convict 
Him if they could of a single sin, a wilful or an 
accidental wrong. None took up the challenge 
then. Across all the shame, the falsehood, the 
conspiracy and the treasons wrought in twenty 
centuries none has taken it up since. 

His sinlessness, His divine, His miraculous 
holiness is so self-evident, so unimpeachable, so 
far above assault that it needs no exhortation to 
believe it. 

God is not calling on men to follow the earth- 
ly example of His Son, to copy it in order that 
they may be saved. 

Take the best man you know. The man 
against whom his most intimate friends can find 
not the slightest charge; who stands with all 
shadows beneath his feet; who is so perfect that 
his praise is in every mouth, and place that man 
alongside the Christ of God and he shall be as 
unclean, unwholesome and repellant as the black 
stream of thick and turgid slime that runs its 
course in the foulest filled and most repulsive 
ditch. All our righteousness in His sight are as 
filthy, sickening, germ-laden rags. 



466 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Take him who has followed Christ, one who 
has followed Him more nearly and clearly than 
any other on the earth, and whose motives have 
been sane and pure and always loyal, and he 
shall seem as near to actually following and 
being like Christ as the crawling worm is to the 
heaven-flying meteor. 

Put the attainment of the loftiest human char- 
acter on earth by His side and it reaches to His 
moral and spiritual elevation no nearer than the 
grain of sand at the bottom of the Alps is to their 
snow-clad heights. 

God is not calling on men to match themselves 
with Christ or make Him the merely perfect 
human model for their natural lives. 

He is calling on men to believe in His Son, 
not as He walked the earth but — As HE DIED ON 
THE CROSS. 

That cross was set up in the counsels of God- 
head before ever the earth or the heavens were 
formed. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world 
that He might go to that cross. 

The cross was the objective of His birth. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 4^7 

He was born to die on the cross. 

The artist who pictured Him standing in the 
carpenter shop at Nazareth, in the light of the 
setting sun with His hands outstretched until 
the shadow fell on the opposite wall in the form 
of a cross, depicted with true perception the pur- 
pose of His life and the daily deepening shadow 
of the approaching fact. 

Continually He told His disciples He was 
going up to Jerusalem to be crucified. 

He set His face steadfastly thither. 

He went to that cross as straight as the arrow 
from the bow, as a beam of light from the sun. 

God is calling men to believe in His Son, His 
Crucified Son, 

This was the theme of the Apostle Paul. 

Standing there in Corinth, surrounded by 
Greek culture, himself a scholar, standing where 
his eye could take in the scenes of classic inspira- 
tion, and where everything might tempt him to 
parade his learning, his rhetoric and scholastic 
skill, in simple and downright terms he said: 

"I determined not to know anything among 
you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified/' 



468 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Through the Church God is calling men to 
believe in — 

Christ on the cross. 

He is not telling the Church to go preach the 
earthly life of Christ at all. 

It is amazing that men, that accredited preach- 
ers with an open Bible, should think so. Turn 
over the sermons of the apostles, read their let- 
ters to the churches ; they are not taken up with 
how He lived and what He did on earth. No! 
they are occupied with what He did so tremen- 
dously and triumphantly on the cross. They 
are possessed, held with amazement as well as 
awe and delight and overflowing joy as they con- 
template Him on that cross, and pour out the 
fulness of their souls as they seek to speak and 
write about it. 

God is calling men to believe in Christ on that 
cross as a sacrifice for sin, as the antitype and 
fulfillment of all the sacrifices and offerings that 
had gone before, as the true burnt offering, peace 
offering, sin and trespass offering. 

He is calling on men to believe in the empty 
grave, the light of immortality that flashes forth 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 4^9 

in the resurrection of His Son; to offer Him as 
the sacrifice provided by infinite love and meas- 
ureless grace; to claim Him as personal substi- 
tute; to own Him as Lord, as God, as Saviour 
and only Redeemer. 

This is the invitation. 

This is the function of the Church. 

And this is the age in which to fulfill the func- 
tion, to give broadcast the invitation. 

But it is more than an invitation. 

It is a law; as much a law as the law of Sinai. 

You are commanded to believe on our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

It is an invitation that holds within it all the 
energy of a command. It demands obedience, 
the obedience of faith; as it is written: 

"The preaching of Jesus Christ, according to 
the revelation of the mystery, which was kept 
secret since the world began, But now is made 
manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, 
according to the commandment of the everlast- 
ing God, made known to all nations for the obe- 
dience of faith/' 



470 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

It is certainly an invitation, a gracious invita- 
tion. 

It is, beyond all doubt, a commandment, an 
insistent and absolute commandment. 

You have no choice about it. 

It is not open to discussion. 

The Gospel does not present a theme for de- 
bate. 

It is a law legislated in agony and written in 
blood. 

The Christian minister as an ambassador of 
Christ is authorized to utter it as such and pre- 
sent it as God's ultimatum to the nations. 

If you accept and believe it, the results are 
immediate. 

The moment you believe you are counted of 
God as obedient. You may have been the worst 
of sinners and the chiefest of rebels against His 
way and will ; but, so soon as you believe you are 
reported at the throne of God, no longer a guilty, 
death-doomed rebel, but an obedient and ac- 
cepted son, your sins all forgiven; though they 
may have been as scarlet they are made whiter 
than snow. You are justified, accepted as right- 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 471 

eous before God; you are made a partaker of 
the divine nature ; you are indwelt by the Holy 
Ghost and through Him linked up to the body 
of a risen and glorified Christ, made heir with 
Him, coheir throughout eternal ages — you are 
saved. 

If you do not believe the results are just as 
marked. 

You have transgressed God's law. 

The transgression of the law is sin. 

You are a sinner before God. 

You may be here to-night the whitest man 
who ever lived upon the earth. You may have 
no yesterdays to haunt you, no Nemesis coming 
with wool-shod feet, with hammer and nail, 
swiftly behind you with sudden blow to smite 
your throbbing temple. You may have no fears 
of to-morrow. Your character may be such that 
men salute you as you pass and you yourself so 
confident in your own integrity you could look 
unwinkingly in the eyes of God. You may be 
all that and yet, if here and now I ask you to be- 
lieve and accept our Lord Jesus Christ as your 
only Saviour, your Lord and God; if you re- 



47 2 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

spond to me and say no, tell me you have no 
need of Him, that you are ready and willing to 
stand on the merit of your own character, then I 
tell you, if never a sinner before, you are a sinner 
now. 

And not only that! in God's sight you are the 
worst of sinners. You have committed sin great- 
er than any other written in the calendar of 
many. Make no mistake! the sins that are cata- 
logued and read and known of men will have to 
be answered for. All sin of every description 
unpardoned will be punished; but great as the 
worst of other sins may be, your sin is greater 
than all others combined. 

I cannot make you believe it. 

No archangel from heaven could make you 
believe it. The Holy Ghost alone can do it. 

He alone can convict man of that sin of all 
sins, the sin supreme, — the sin of refusing to be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and own Him as 
Saviour through His redeeming blood. 

That is why the Holy Spirit personally is 
down here in this age. Our Lord said when the 
Spirit whom He calls the Comforter should 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 473 

come He would convict the world of sin, of 
righteousness and judgment to come. 

And note the words : '^ 

"Of sin — Because they believe not on 
Me." 

The Holy Ghost did not come into the world 
to convict men of the sins of lust, of lying, cheat- 
ing, theft, robbery, drunkenness, profanity, mur- 
der. The laws of the state will do that. The ac- 
cusing remorse of a man's conscience will do 
Ihat. 

That is not the work of the Holy Ghost. 

He came into the world to convict men of but 
ONE SIN^ the sin of sins, the sin of disbelieving in 
and rejecting Christ, the crucified and risen Son 
of God. 

I cannot convict you of this sin ; but I can tell 
you why it is the greatest of all sins. 

What would you say of the man condemned 
to die for whom his fellow citizens felt such 
compassion that they signed a protest and sent 
out a plea to the governor of the state to pardon 
him, to let him even go free? What would you 
say of that man who when the pardon came, 



474 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

signed and sealed with the great seal of the state, 
when it was handed to him, took it, spat upon it, 
then flung it in the face of the pardon bearer, by 
so doing flinging it in the face of every one who 
had been moved with sympathy in his behalf; 
by so much not only insulted also the governor 
but the great and worthy state he represented; 
what would you say of a man who so trampled 
on the grace of men? 

Surely you would have no words with which 
to describe the shock it gave you, the wound 
upon all your human sensibilities; certainly 
words would fail you to depict the shame, the 
outrage and the added sin of such an one. 

And yet, that is your attitude, the attitude of 
every one who rejects the Son of God, crucified 
and risen as Lord and Saviour; the attitude of 
every one who refuses the salvation offered 
through Him. 

You take God's grace, you spit upon it and 
fling it back in His face. 

Surely this is sin and the aggravation of sin. 
It is sin exceedingly sinful. 

But your sin is greater than that. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 475 

What would you say if a man saw another 
killed arfd weltering in his blood, if he should 
leap upon that murdered man; upon his muti- 
lated body and grind it in all its clotted crimson 
beneath his heel? Could you fittingly cry out 
against the unspeakable brutality, the beastly 
outrage? 

And yet this is what you do when you reject 
Jesus Christ as God presents Him to you, hang- 
ing on that Roman cross. 

The blood spilling out from His fast-nailed 
body is the blood of the covenant, the red seal 
of the fore-determined purpose of God. It is 
the most holy, the most sacred thing in the uni- 
verse of God — that blood of Christ, 

When you reject this crucified Son of God 
you are trampling this blood as it flows earth- 
ward under your feet and counting it an unholy 
and common thing. 

Who may describe the monstrosity of such a 
sin? 

The angels of God look at you with amaze- 
ment, pain and horror. 

But you do more than trample the blood of 



47 6 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Christ beneath your feet when you refuse to ac- 
cept Him. 

The death of Christ was either a heaven- 
ordained sacrifice for sin, or just an inconse- 
quential and brutal murder. 

If you claim it as a sacrifice God will accept 
it on your behalf as an offering for sin. 

If you refuse so to claim it you become a re- 
jecter of Christ, take sides with those who cruci- 
fied Him and whether consciously or uncon- 
sciously justify the attitude of those who killed 
Him, killing Him as they did, for a deceiver 
and blasphemer. But, since He was neither de- 
ceiver nor blasphemer, their action in killing 
Him was murder; and as you reject Christ be- 
cause you do not believe in His claim you be- 
come identified with them as rejecters and with 
them guilty of murder in God's sight. 

But mark the category of this murder. 

There is patricide, matricide, sororicide, sui- 
cide, but this is nothing less than — deicide, the 
murder of God. 

The murder of God! How is it possible? 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 477 

I answer : 

The Son of God was God the Son. He took 
humanity into union with Himself, a new, dis- 
tinct humanity which He Himself created for 
Himself that in it He might taste death as a sac- 
rifice for every man. Through His humanity 
then He is either sacrificed or murdered. When 
you refuse Him as your sacrifice, you stand, 
whether intentionally or not, with those who 
slew Him. He Himself has said there is no 
middle ground. If you are not for Him you are 
against Him; as it is written: 

"He that is not with me, is against me!' 

You are guilty as an accessory to the act. 

You — the rejecter of Christ — are guilty of dei- 
cide. 

What a sin of sins is this ! 

But you do more than join or justify or be- 
come accessory to the crowd that killed Him. 

You proclaim God to be a liar. 

As it is written: 

"He that believeth not God hath made him a 
liar; because he believeth not the record which 
God has given of His Son, 



47 S THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Every moment you hesitate to accept and be- 
lieve God's testimony concerning His Son you 
proclaim openly and squarely, in the face of the 
whole universe that He is a liar. 

Think of it! standing under the high heavens 
of God, walking about every day, enjoying His 
providence, His mercy and care and yet, at every 
step, announcing that — 

God is a liar, 

O you who reject Jesus Christ, who deliber- 
ately repudiate Him from your life; you who 
reject the crucified Christ as the sacrifice which 
God in His infinite mercy and grace offers you, 
and pleads with you to accept, you are the great- 
est of all sinners on earth. 

You are guilty of the sin of sins — Unbelief. 

Atonement has been made for every sin under 
heaven but — the sin of unbelief. 

Every other sin under heaven, no matter how 
black, may be forgiven. 

There is no atonement for unbelief. 

There is no possible forgiveness for unbelief. 

God Himself cannot save an unbeliever. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 479 

So great a judgment, you say, so terrific an 
attitude for so small a thing as unbelief! 

Small is it, think you, this thing of unbelief? 

Unbelief has brewed every tear on earth, 
caused every disease, inspired and operated 
every tragedy, nerved the hand of every wicked- 
ness. It separates parents and children, hus- 
bands and wives, friends and comrades, nation 
from nation; breeds the viper of suspicion, of 
envy, jealousy and hatred; lights the flame of 
every war and digs every grave. It is lawless- 
ness, anarchy, repudiation of dignities, the 
breaking down of standards. It is the father and 
mother of blasphemy, and were it unchecked, 
would blot the name of God from every book, 
would turn righteousness into unrighteousness, 
virtue into vice. Had it all the power it seeks, 
could it accomplish all which its malevolent 
genius ordains, it would fling God from His 
very throne and turn the universe into a chaos of 
recriminating, self-accusing and hopeless hell. 

For such a sin God, even Almighty God, has 
no choice of action. 



48o THE GREAT SEPARATION 

For it there can be only judgment, condemna- 
tion, damnation. 

Thus, and in the nature of the case, the Gospel 
brings, not only free and full salvation, but or- 
dained, definite and sure damnation. 

That is what the apostle means when he says 
it is a ^^savour of life unto life, and of death unto 
death." 

It will bring you to justification or condemna- 
tion. 

There is no place of compromise. 

You cannot come into this place, and hear this 
Gospel I preach and then go out as you came in. 

I am no mere Bible lecturer. I should con- 
sider such a title a dishonor. I am an ambassa- 
dor of Christ. I am standing here not as a de- 
bater, but as a messenger of the Most High God. 
I am here to magnify my office. I am here to 
proclaim the truth whether men hear or whether 
they forbear. This Gospel I am preaching to 
you will save you or damn you. It will bring 
you to Christ or it will put you in the place of 
those who reject and crucify Him. 

This is the reason why the heavens are silent 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 4^1 

God and the heaven-host are waiting to know 
what you will do. 

God has done all He can do to make salvation 
complete. 

You have only to believe and to receive, 

God is patiently waiting to know what you 
will do. 

He has called. 

His very patience and waiting is a call. 

This is my first proposition : 

God is calling on all to profess faith in the 
name of His Son. 

II, There is a profession of Christ which 
gives all the evidences of being genuine and ac- 
ceptable to God. 

The genuine professor is first and beyond all 
things else — a believer. 

Any fool can doubt. 

It requires neither intellect nor genius to dis- 
believe. 

"I don't believe it," is oftentimes the response 
a man gives to a statement the first time made to 
him upon some matter with which he is not ac- 
quainted. 



4^2 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Unbelief is the common state. 

Faith is the sign and seal of divine election. 

While it is true faith cometh by hearing and 
hearing by the Word of God, it is also true that 
faith, through grace is the gift of God. 

The moment of faith, of genuine faith, the in- 
dividual bears witness of this endowment of God 
and union with Christ. 

It is written: 

"He that believeth hath life/' 

The genuine professor believes in the Bible 
from cover to cover. 

He believes in fiat creation, original sin, the 
fall of hian, the virgin birth, the atoning sacri- 
fice, the resurrection of Christ and the whole 
body of Christian doctrine. 

He believes in the Bible, not because he is al- 
ways able to reason about the things it pro- 
claims, but because he accepts it as the Word of 
God. He starts with that proposition. He rests 
upon it as a "thus saith the Lord." 

The genuine prof essor has been regenerated, 

God has wrought more omnipotently in him 
than when He formed the worlds. He has 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 4^3 

wrought and formed within him the very life 
and nature of His Son. He has made him a 
living, daily miracle. He has transformed his 
body into a temple, into the sacred blood-re- 
deemed and blood-washed shrine of the Holy 
Ghost, He who is the personal, essential holi- 
ness of the Godhead. 

The genuine professor of Christianity reverses 
his old life. 

He hates the things he once loved. 

He once loved sin. He rolled it as a sweet 
morsel under his tongue. His heart was a cage 
of unclean and untamed things. He did not love 
the things of God and Christ. 

Now he hates sin. He hates the memory of 
his past life. It embitters and shames him to 
think of it. He seeks more and more to hide it, 
bury it deep beneath the obliterating blood of 
Christ. He loves the things of God and the 
"way" of Christ. 

He seeks to do the will of God, 

The one thing he supremely wishes to know is 
the mind of God, — what God's thought and will 
concerning him may be. 



4^4 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

He yields to the Spirit. 

He seeks to bring forth the clustered fruit of 
the Spirit. His unceasing aim is to build up a 
character for God, to become the reincarnation 
and translation of Christ to men. 

He loves the House of God, 

With the Psalmist he will say: 

"I was glad when they said unto me, let us go 
unto the house of the Lord." 

He loves to pray. 

Prayer to Him means something more than 
prayer by rote. It is true he will bring his bur- 
dens and his cares and spread them out before 
the Lord. He will call upon Him for deliver- 
ance and daily help; but his true joy is to go 
into his closet, shut the door, be alone with 
God, talk to Him, pour out his heart, feel the 
conscious response of God in his soul, joy in the 
intimate communion which permits him to talk 
with God, till, sometimes in the rapture of it 
the tears are on his cheek and ecstasy in his soul. 

He loves the written Word of God, 

That Word to him is as a fountain of crystal 
water; it is an oasis in the desert; it is daily food, 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 4^5 

it is bread from Heaven; it is light in the spir- 
itual darkness ; it is music ; it is song in the night ; 
it is a harp touched by invisible fingers; it is a 
trumpet full of the shouts of victory; it is a tele- 
scope with which to look into the ''far country," 
the city of God and the throne of Christ; it is 
nexus with God; it is a wireless telegraph, the 
Holy Spirit is the Hertzian wave, the pages of 
the Book the receiver; it is a mirror in which he 
may behold the glory of the Lord and by con- 
templation within it be transfigured into the 
same image from glory unto glory; it is a uni- 
versity, the president the Holy Spirit, the fac- 
ulty, prophets, priests and kings, the curricu- 
lum the eternal truth of God. 

The genuine professor recognizes that he is 
the bond slave of Christ, 

He owns that he has been bought and paid for 
with the precious blood of Christ. He confesses 
that he does not belong to himself but wholly to 
Christ, all he has and is. He gives Him his 
time, his talent, his substance, and, above all, 
himself. 

He is a worker. 



486 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

He cannot comprehend how a Christian can 
be redeemed and saved, then loaf on God. He 
has no place in his thought for any one who 
names the name of Christ, then sits down, folds 
his hands and is willing to do nothing while he 
receives the bounties of the Lord. With Paul 
he is ever constrained to ask: 

"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" 

He is anxious to save the lost. 

He knows the difficulty in reaching them. 
Time and again he feels himself helpless in the 
matter; but his heart is earnest, his purpose 
sincere and he is ready to be used whenever the 
door of opportunity is opened. The word fitly 
spoken that is so good to utter comes easily to 
his lips at the appointed moment. 

The love of Christ constrains him. 

Not his love to Christ, but the love of Christ 
to him. Now and then he may feel his own love 
grow cold or failing, but every glimpse at the 
cross of Christ, at the crimson stain made there 
for him, fills him afresh and holds him, carries 
him through desert places, stays him in hours of 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 4^7 

conflict and brings him over many a bridgeless 
gulf, through many a doorless wall. 

What he does, he does for Christ's sake. 

This is ever his rallying cry and the impulse 
that lifts him above his natural wish. 

He rejoices in the Lord his Saviour. 

The joys of earth fade, the pleasures of the 
flesh wither, but in the Lord there are joys which 
flow as from a never-failing fountain. 

He is full of assurance. 

He knows, should he die, he would be absent 
from his home in this body and present at his 
home with the Lord. He knows in a moment he 
would pass through the gates of the upper city 
and walks on the banks of the river of life. If 
he has been well taught he knows the Coming of 
the Lord is imminent, and that any moment 
which shall please the Lord he may be caught 
up to, meet Him, be clothed with. immortality 
and be with Him forevermore. He is a saved 
man and knows it and daily brings forth ''the 
things which accompany salvation." 

He is compared in Scripture to the wise vir- 
gins. 



4B8 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

The wise virgins not only took oil in their 
lamps but in the vessels with their lamps. He 
not only bears the lamp of profession, he has 
the Holy Spirit in his body as the continual re- 
plenishment of the light he bears. 

He is compared to the man who built his house 
on a rock. 

The black clouds gather. Midnoon is turned 
to midnight. The surcharged clouds break. 
They pour forth their flood. The winds sweep 
the rain in gusty raffles. The downpour be- 
comes a tidal wave. Wave after wave beats 
upon the rock and the increasing winds roar 
and shriek and fling themselves in mad, discord- 
ant fury against that house, but it falls not — it 
is founded upon a rock. 

That rock is Christ, the risen, immortal 
Christ. 

The professor is a true and genuine Christian. 
He has done the will of God in founding him- 
self upon that Rock; founding himself in all 
sincerity and truth on Christ, his profession is 
as the storm-smitten but immovable rock. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 4^9 

///. There is a profession of Christ which 
gives no evidence of being genuine. 

Unregenerate professors do not love the House 
of God, 

There are, it is said, in this city, a million per- 
sons, Protestants, who once professed the name 
of Christ who rarely, if ever, go to church. 

Dislike for the house of God and the assembly 
of the saints bears tremendous witness against 
the genuineness of such professors. 

They do not love the Word of God. 

They vO^ill read anything else but that. They 
will read the daily blanket sheet filled with false- 
hood and current scandal. They will read the 
lightest novels whose worthlessness is so mani- 
fest they slip from the mind with such ease that 
continuous reading destroys memory and fills the 
brain with emptiness. 

They do not love to pray. 

They never pray except when they are sick; 
or some one whom they love is near to die, or 
when their own plans fail and they are shut 
sheer up in some impasse from which they can- 
not emerge, then they cry out in despair. They 



49C> THE GREAT SEPARATION 

know nothing of the prayer that breathes out the 
soul and carries it as on wings to God. They do 
not actually pray. They may say prayers, but 
they do not pray; they do not talk to God. A 
prayerless soul is a godless soul. A prayerless 
professor gives no evidence that he or she is 
aught else but a mere professor. 

They do not care for Christian company. 

They prefer to find their friends among the 
worldlings. They are at home with them and 
not with spiritual Christians. Spiritual Chris- 
tians exceedingly bore them; their conversation 
annoys them; they do not feel at home or at 
ease with them. 

They do not change their old life nor their old 
way of living. 

Their speech is careless, flippant. The speech 
of professed Christian men is sometimes filled 
with slang, with "inconvenient" jest and not in- 
frequently, with profanity, and is more or less 
redolent with the suggestions of down-right un- 
belief. 

They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers 
t^t God. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 49 1 

They show none of the fruit of the spirit. 

They have a name to live and are spiritually 
dead. 

They may at times be religious, but are never 
spiritual. 

Between religiousness and spirituality there 
is an Atlantic ocean difference. The difference 
is as great as that between death and life. An 
idolator is religious, but he is spiritually dead. 
Religious forms and beautiful ceremonies, with- 
out the Spirit of Christ, are like the flowers laid 
on the breast of the dead, their very beauty of 
form and delight of fragrance serve only to draw 
attention to the fact of death. 

Professors who do not manifest Christ in their 
daily lives are stumbling blocks to non-prof es- , 
sor^ 

They are a scandal to the church. 

They are a dishonor to God. 

They do more harm to the cause of Christ 
than all the open sinners and infidels in the 
world. 

IV. A great separation will take place when 



492 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

our Lord corhes down into the air to receive 
His Church to Himself, 

In previous sermons I have shown you the 
Lord is coming in a three-fold glory. 

He is coming in the glory of the Father — as 
His Son. 

He is coming in the glory of the angels — as 
their Master, 

He is coming in His own glory — as God the 
Son. 

He is coming with ten thousand times ten 
thousand and thousands of the angelic host. 

Every cloud will be a chariot of burnished 
glory. 

The wide, measureless spaces of the heavens 
yvill be filled with song, — the songs the Heav- 
enly choirs have been practicing since that hour 
when the morning stars sang together and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy. 

The earth will quiver at the sound of ap- 
proaching glory. 

The mountains will melt and flow down. 

The ocean from all its depths will break with 
awe-inspiring thunder on all its shores. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 493 

Every voice in heaven, in earth and under the 
earth will salute Him as He comes to reveal 
Himself the wonderful, the mighty God, the 
everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 

But, before He comes in glory such as this. 
He will descend in sudden soft and secret fash- 
ion, like a thief in the night into the upper air. 

He will call every genuine professor of His 
name up to meet Him. The dead in Christ will 
be raised, the living will be changed. They 
shall be clothed with His likeness. They shall 
be made immortal. He will take them through 
the wide, open gates of pearl into the golden and 
transparent city. They shall pass through a civil 
service examination at His judgment seat of re- 
ward. He will reward the slightest deed done 
in His name, the cup of cold water given, the 
kindly word spoken, the hand of helpfulness ex- 
tended. He will assign to each the place he is to 
occupy in the coming kingdom. But as soon as 
He takes the church up to meet Him He will 
shut the door of Heaven. 

This will be the moment of the great separa- 
tion. 



494 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Up to that hour all the living will have lived 
together, the good and the bad, the righteous 
and unrighteous, believer and unbeliever. AH 
will have enjoyed the common providence, the 
unfailing grace. There has been outwardly no 
distinction in the relation of human beings to the 
Heaven of God; but now, all those of the living 
who belong to Christ, who are really His, will 
be taken out of the earth. All who are not His 
will be shut out from Heaven's gates, Heaven's 
joys and left behind to the hardening and scourg- 
ing judgment, the certain woe and the long time 
and often warned anguish that is coming on the 
earth, and for a space will make of it an arena of 
indescribable anguish and suffering, a world in 
which all who have missed the invitations of 
grace and rejected the mercy of God will ifind 
themselves in their woe and suffering sealed unto 
the coming and final doom. 

There will be four classes left behind to meet 
this fearful hour: 

Unregenerate church-members. 

False systems of Christianity. 

False teachers. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 495 

The world of unbelievers. 

Unregenerate church-members. 

The very title seems appalling. 

But such are all those who are mere profes- 
sors of the name of Christ. 

Multitudes are made such by the doctrine and 
practice of 

Infant Baptism. 

There is no such teaching in the Word of 
God. 

If I were to offer a man a million of dollars 
to find a single direct text authorizing the bap- 
tism of infants, or a single instance recorded in 
the New Testament where an infant of days was 
baptized, and should I give the seeker after the 
text a million years in which to find it, should 
he in the providence of God be spared to live 
that long, he would die poor and be buried in 
the tattered rags of his long-time poverty. 

Baptism in Holy Scripture is a confession of 
individual faith, that Christ died, was buried, 
and rose again. 

Such baptism must be preceded by intelligent 
personal and responsible faith. 



49 6 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

The disaster in the doctrine of infant baptism 
is not merely in the fact that it is not taught in 
nor warranted by the Word of God and is in it- 
self a denial of the basis and ground of true bap- 
tism, but in the fact that it is taught as the means 
and mode of regeneration. 

Infant baptism is only another name for bap- 
tismal regeneration. 

The word of God knows nothing about baptis- 
mal regeneration. 

It may be objected the son of God Himself 
has said: "Except a man be born of (out of) 
water and of (out of) the spirit, he cannot enter 
the Kingdom of God." 

It may be affirmed that in speaking of water 
the Son of God was referring to baptism and 
declaring that in and by and through the act 
or administration of baptism the Spirit operated 
upon the soul of the baptized and produced re- 
generation. 

The answer to this is to be found in Saint 
Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, fifth chapter, 
twenty-sixth verse. 

'^The washing of water by {in) the word/' 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 497 

The Lord is speaking of the cleansing and 
sanctifying of the Church in and by the Word. 

In His address to the disciples at the last sup- 
per He declared they were clean, sanctified and 
set apart by His Word, He said: 

"Ye are clean through the Word which I have 
spoken unto you." 

In the expression, "washing of water in the 
word," the spiritually quickening and cleansing 
power of the Word to the soul is compared to 
the washing and cleansing action of water upon 
the body. 

The energy which gives the Word its quicken- 
ing, cleansing power is the Spirit. 

When therefore, our Lord says, "except a man 
be born (quickened) of water and of the spirit," 
He is not using water as a symbol of baptism; 
for, that would be making a symbol, the symbol 
of a symbol and in the connection would have no 
meaning at all as coordinate with the spirit. On 
the contrary, He is using water as a symbol of 
the Word. And in this the water is legitimately 
coordinated with Spirit. The Lord is here set- 



49 S THE GREAT SEPARATION 



V 



ting forth the fact that the Spirit and the Word 
are the alone efficient means of regeneration. 

The Spirit is the agent, the Word the instru- 
ment. 

The Word is preached, the Spirit quickens it, 
the spiritual life enters in, the individual re- 
ceives the new birth. 

This operation of the Spirit and the Word is 
illustrated by our Lord in answer to the ques- 
tion of Nicodemus. 

Nicodemus cannot understand how a man 
may be born again; or, rather, ^^quickened from 
above," when he has already been quickened, 
and born from below, on earth. 

The Lord tells him that as Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of 
Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

The bitten Israelites got life by looking away 
from themselves to the crucified serpent on the 
cross (it was a cross). They got life by taking 
God at His word about it. 

Just so, you look away from self and all the 
hopes self hold§ out, You look at Christ on the 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 499 

cross. You take God at His Word about Him. 
You accept Him on the authority of God's 
Word. The Word enters your soul like a seed, 
the Spirit quickens it, you have life in Christ, 
you are saved. 

Baptism cannot do that. 

All the water in the world though it were 
poured upon you like a flood; all the water in 
the world though you were plunged in it as in 
an ocean; all the baptism in the world be it 
scriptural or unscriptural and though the name 
of the Father Son and Holy Ghost were pro- 
nounced upon it a thousand times in each indi- 
vidual case, would never quicken a human soul, 
nor give it a vision of the kingdom of God. 

No! only the Spirit and the Word in coordi- 
nation through the exercise of personal faith 
can do this. 

Baptismal regeneration then is impossible. 

The very proposition would shut out from 
Christ and the kingdom the one person on earth 
whom He particularly said should be with Him 
in paradise and be assured of the kingdom. The 
thief on the cross — and every believer in Christ 



500 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

who died and for one reason or another had not 
been baptized. 

Infant Baptism is unthinkable. 

It does not take the place of circumcision as 
the seal of the covenant. The seal of the cove- 
nant of grace is the Holy Spirit, as it is written: 
"After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that 
holy Spirit of promise." 

And again: 

"The holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are 
sealed unto the day of redemption." 

Infant baptism could not take the place of 
circumcision in the very nature of the case. Cir- 
cumcision applies only to the male sex. Infant 
baptism is unthinkable because in every case of 
recorded baptism in the New Testament it is 
preceded by the exercise of personal faith. 

But, infant baptism produces measureless dis- 
aster. 

It deceives the individual. At confirmation 
the person who has been baptized in infancy is 
confirmed in the. belief that through this so- 
called act of baptism, through the agency of 
water the Spirit operated independently of the 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 501 

individuaVs own personal attitude in the matter, 
and on the strength of the faith of others, of those 
who stood sponsors for him; and that during all 
these years from childhood, no matter what may 
have been his character he has had the Christ life 
in him. Again and again such a person counting 
himself sincere in his early regeneration feels no 
further responsibility, accepts confirmation and 
is made into a natural and unregenerate member 
of the Church of Christ. 

But, let no one go away under the impression 
I am saying all those who have been baptized 
in infancy are unregenerate. God forbid I 
should even suggest such a thing; for again and 
again in the days leading up to confirmation or 
"first communion," many are laid hold of by 
the Spirit through the Word of the Gospel and 
are actually quickened, regenerated, saved. 

What I am saying is this — that baptism does 
not do it and no infant that ever lived was regen- 
erated by it, or ever will be. The grace of God 
can and does rise above human failure and hu- 
man error and call the elect. But it is beyond 
all possible dispute that through the unscrip- 



502 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

tural doctrine of infant baptism or baptismal 
regeneration in any case, multitudes have been 
made into unregenerate members of the profess- 
ing Church. 

Unregenerate members are made through the 
appeal to and the exercise of merely fleshly emo- 
tions. 

Our Lord speaks of a certain class who are 
like the seed which fell upon rocky ground. It 
sprang up immediately, but soon withered away 
and did so because — // had no root. 

In these days of "modernized" evangelism 
through appeals made to the natural emotions, 
the organized effort in the name of Christ for 
a moral and fleshly "clean-up," there are multi- 
tudes swept into the profession of Christ. They 
imagine because they no longer drink, nor use 
profane language, nor lead immoral lives and 
are more gentle and better mannered, that they 
are Christians. Many of them awake to their 
own self-deception, grow indifferent and fall 
away. They become members of the professing 
Church. They never were regenerated. They 
had no root in Christ. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 503 

All unregenerate members of the professing 
Church will be shut out of Heaven and left be- 
hind to judgment when our Lord Jesus Christ 
comes for His true Church. 

False systems of Christianity will be left be- 
hind. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ warned there would be 
such false systems. He foretold it in the par- 
able of the wheat and tares. 

The wheat was sown in the field. 

An enemy came along in the night while 
men slept and sowed tares (cheat, darnel) among 
the wheat. 

They grew side by side. 

They appeared so much alike the farmer com- 
manded his servants to let them grow till the 
harvest. 

All the while they were growing side by side 
it was a mixed field. 

At the harvest time the reapers went forth 
and separated the tares from the wheat, gath- 
ered them into bundles and bound them that 
they might be burned. 

It is to be remembered the field does not sym- 



504 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

bolize the Church. Our Lord says it is a sym- 
bol of the world. 

The wheat is a symbol of the children of the 
Kingdom, those who are not only professors, 
but possessors of Christ — Christians. 

The tares also represent the profession of 
Christ in the world; but tares are counterfeit 
wheat. Tares therefore represent counterfeit 
Christianity, counterfeit Christians in the world. 

The world is full of these Devil-wrought and 
counterfeit systems of Christianity. 

Unitarianism is a counterfeit system of Chris^ 
tianity. 

Unitarianism denies the triunity of God. 

According to Unitarianism Jesus Christ is the 
Son of God, but not God the Son. 

In this proposition it denies the declaration of 
the Apostle John that in His pre-existent state 
our Lord was God the Word and created all 
things. 

It denies the later statement of John that 
Jesus Christ is true God and eternal life. 

It denies Paul's affirmation that before the 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5^5 

Son of God came into this world He was in the 
"form of God." 

It denies Paul's statement that by Him God 
the Father created all things, that in Him all 
things consist, that the fulness of the godhead 
dwelt in Him bodily and that He upholds all 
things by the Word of His power. 

It denies the Lord's own statement that He 
was of one substance and being with the Father; 
that before the world was He sat on the infinite 
throne in Heaven with Him, sharing and man- 
ifesting His glory; that He was self -existent as 
the Father and could do all that God the Father 
could do. 

It denies the overwhelming, climacteric and 
conclusive statement of the Father: 

Unto the Son the Father says: 

^^Thy throne, GOD, is forever and ever!* 

The Apostle John says : 

"Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath 
not the Father." 

The Father and the Son are one in being and 
essence. To be without the one is to be without 
the other. 



5o6 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

The Unitarian who denies the deity of Christ, 
has not the Father, is not a child of God, and 
cannot be saved. 

The Unitarian who believes in Unitarianism 
will with that false system be shut out from 
Heaven when the Lord comes for His Church. 

TJniversalism is a system of counterfeit Chris- 
tianity. 

Universalism teaches that Christ died for all 
men and in His dying paid the penalty against 
all. This is true of all, whether they accept the 
death of Christ as a sacrifice or claim Him as 
a substitute. Since the penalty of all has been 
paid, all will be saved from the original doom. 
No matter though men continue in sin up to the 
hour of death they will be saved. 

Such a system if it does not put an actual pre- 
mium upon sin does put a premium upon spir- 
itual indifference and nullifies every appeal and 
warning against continuance in sin. 

But above and beyond all this, in assuring sal- 
vation to all men, Universalism denies the sol- 
emn and warning utterance of the Son of God 
Himself. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5^7 

He said: 

"He that believeth not the Son shall not see 
life; but the wrath of God abideth on Him. 

Could anything be plainer than that? 

The unbeliever shall not see life. 

If the unbeliever dies in his unbelief he shall 
not only not see life (the eternal life of Christ) 
but the wrath of God will abide on him on the 
other side of death and the grave — through eter- 
nity will abide on him. 

To teach men they are saved; to fill them 
with the hope of life and then let them go into 
eternity to exist forever unsaved, forever under 
the down pressure and weight of the abiding 
wrath of God ! Is there anything more wickedly 
deceptive and betraying of the soul than that? 

Universalists who have not turned in faith to 
Godj who have not been regenerated by the 
Spirit will be left behind when the Lord comes, 
to meet and suffer the unspeakable woe. 

Roman Catholicism is a false and counterfeit 
system of Christianity . 

It is a compound of Judaism, Paganism, and 
Apostate Christianity. It has the priesthood of 



5o8 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Judaism, the idolatry of Paganism, and the in- 
vented and perverted doctrines of Apostate 
Christianity. 

It teaches that the bread and wine in the 
Lord's Supper may be transformed by the word 
of the priest into the actual body and blood of 
Christ. It teaches that the priest has power to 
offer up the Son of God in sacrifice, that His 
crucifixion is continual, teaching this in plain 
and open contradiction to the word of the Apos- 
tle that Christ died once for all and by one sac- 
rifice has perfected forever those who believe. 

It teaches purgatory, a half way purifying 
hell for those who die, out of which for a certi- 
fied sum of money they may eventually be liber- 
ated by the priest and having been purified by 
the fire may enter heaven at last. 

It teaches the immaculate conception of the 
Virgin Mary, that she was specially conceived 
without sin in order that she might be the sinless 
mother of her sinless Son. It miraculously re- 
moves her from earth and sets her up to be the 
queen of heaven. It thrusts her in as primd.ry 
and supreme intercessor between the Christian 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5^9 

and the high priestly interceding Christ Him- 
self. 

It teaches the supremacy of the Church to the 
written Word, holds the written Word to be de- 
pendent on and secondary to the authority of 
the Church, claims the right to originate doc- 
trine, claims temporal sovereignty over the 
kingdoms and nations of earth, teaches the in- 
fallibility of the Pope and makes his decisions 
inerrant and binding. 

The Holy Scriptures in an amazing forecast 
and altogether divine prophecy paint the pic- 
ture of this system under the figure of the woman 
who hides leaven in the meal, as Jezebel of Thy- 
atira, as the scarlet woman, the mistress of the 
ten-horned beast, as Babylon the Great, the 
mother of harlots, as the city which in the days 
of the Apostle John ruled over the Kings of the 
earth, even Rome, and as filled and drunken 
with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. 

The history of this church has been the his- 
tory of bloody persecution, of stakes, of racks, 
of inquisitorial torture to all who opposed or 
pffended her, 



5 lO THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Wherever the Church has been dominant she 
has sunken the people into ignorance and super- 
stition and is in the very nature of the case a 
menace to the liberty of peoples and a barrier to 
spiritual growth in and knowledge of God. 

There are, undoubtedly, many in Romanism 
who are sincere and devout Christians and in 
spite of error and false teaching are filled with 
genuine faith in and devotion to the Son of God. 
But the system with its doctrines of baptismal 
regeneration, auricular confession, the priestly 
power of absolution holds out the false salva- 
tion of an unscriptural Christ, a deceptive and 
soul destroying hope. 

When the Lord comes this system will be left 
to terrific judgments at the hand of the nations 
which once supported and have been controlled 
by it. All those who have not received the 
life of the risen Christ in the soul through sanc- 
tified and genuine faith in Him will be left to 
share the fearful judgment and the anguish of 
the system of which they have formed a part. 

Christian Science is a system of Counterfeit 
Christianity. 



{ 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5 1 1 

It is neither scientific, nor Christian. 

It is not scientific. 

It is not scientific because it denies the exist- 
ence of matter. 

When a Christian Scientist strikes his head 
against a wall, by the logic of his proposition he 
must deny not only the contact, the concussion 
and the reacting blow, but the wall itself. There 
is, there can be, no other wall than such as the 
imagination of mortal mind may self-deceiv- 
ingly fashion for itself. 

It is of little consequence therefore what 
Christian Science may say about matter. 

It is not Christian. 

It is not Christian because it denies every fun- 
damental doctrine of Christianity. 

It denies the Trinity of Godhead. 

It denies the personality of God. 

It denies the blood of Jesus was of any more 
avail when shed on the cross than when flowing 
through His veins in daily life. 

It denies Jesus was an actual person. In giv- 
ing birth to Him the Virgin Mary only gave 
birth to an abstract idea, not to a body of flesh. 



5 1 2 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Jesus and Christ are distinct. 

Jesus is the human idea, Christ is the eternal 
principle of truth. Jesus was an apparition only. 
Christ is the abiding principle. 

Jesus never actually died. How could that 
die which never actually had been born? and yet 
with remarkable reasoning Christian Science 
makes Him continue alive in the tomb during 
the three days in which the disciples had been 
self-deceived in imagining he had ever lived. 

But this method of reasoning is of a piece with 
the whole system. 

It denies that Jesus exists to-day. 

Taking them in order, Christian Science is 
guilty of four fundamental falsehoods. 

The denial of matter. 

The denial of sin. 

The denial of sickness. 

The denial of death. 

The other evening I witnessed a glorious 
sight. 

It was the vision of sunset. 

All the far upper dome of the heavens was 
turning into the blue of night, with her^ and 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5 ^3 

there a pale, faint star. Below them was a 
golden city with towers and turret of sapphire 
beauty. There was a river that poured its mar- 
velous silver by shores of amethyst and rose. 

Toward the horizon great clouds like glow- 
ing embers from a burning palace broke and 
fell. 

Then through a highway of shattered and 
splintered color the chariot of the sun went 
down leaving the night winds as they rose to 
sweep away the dust of gold and crimson the 
fiery wheel had flung as its farewell to the day. 

I have seen the mountains standing in senti- 
nel outline against the descending sky. I have 
seen the valleys and the plains of earth, wooded 
hills and waving fields of grain. I have seen the 
rivers gliding to the sea and have watched the 
great ocean as it broke in billowy waves upon 
the resounding, rock-ribbed shore. 

I have trodden upon shifting sand, on granite 
rock, and yielding soil. I have touched and seen 
and known matter in every form. 

And yet, this Christian Science has the au- 
dacity and the mendacity to stand and say there 
is no matter. 



5 1 4 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Little wonder is it that it has no place upon 
the field of carnage, amid the hell of battle 
thunder, in the wards of hospitals, by the beds of 
wounded men, smitten with shot and shell and 
shrapnel. Little wonder that it dare not go 
amid these scenes and lifting up the blatant, 
babbling talk, with insulting, outrageous utter- 
ance insist that these awful visions, these facts of 
blood and anguish are but the phantasies of 
mortal mind and that matter in a soldiers' 
wrenched and torn and bruised body, and the 
sword, or bayonet or gun that wrecked him and 
made him a broken, helpless thing for life, do 
not exist. 

Everywhere in the earth there are judges, law- 
yers, courthouses, prisons, men behind the prison 
bars, gibbets and electric chairs. Everywhere 
there is violation of law, the tragedy, the flowing 
tears, the spilling of blood, anguish, sorrow, re- 
morse. Everywhere bodies are suffering, hearts 
are aching and lives are blasted because of sin. 
So great, so wide-spread, so universal is sin, so 
indisputable the fact, so great the mystery, so 
measureless its power, its insistence and the in- 
ability to overcome it, abolish it or even modify 



I 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5 1 5 

it, that men who have studied it, sought to re- 
sist it, put lock and bar and chain upon it, have 
shrunk back aghast at its force, its undeniable re- 
ality. 

And yet, this Christian Science has the auda- 
city and the mendacity to stand up and say there 
is — no sin. 

Everywhere in the world you will find doc- 
tors, surgeons, hospitals, sanitoriums. Every- 
where you will find human beings suffering the 
torture of pain, stricken, eaten up, devoured by 
disease, disease so multifarious, so complicated, 
so variant, so involving of every square inch of 
organic animal existence; disease so awful, so 
terrible, making human beings so repulsive, so 
dangerous that even those who love them are 
forced to hide them from the public gaze ; sick- 
ness, disease, pain so immense, so all-pervading 
and threatening to the common weal that the 
keenest brains, the most unwearied study and the 
most loyal and unselfish devotion of man to man 
have been employed to combat, to relieve, to 
cure; and yet, in spite of ages of consecration; 
in spite of poured-out means, of genius, of inven- 
tion and application; although men have 



5 1 6 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

searched nature's laboratories and brought in 
the service of nature's laws, disease, suffering, 
sickness in every shade, degree and form, con- 
ceivable and inconceivable lay hold sooner or 
later in one fashion or another upon every hu- 
man body, even upon the body of the most ex- 
pert and persistent healer of Christian Science 
itself. 

And yet Christian Science has the audacity 
and mendacity to say there is — no sickness. 

Everywhere in the world you will find the 
silent cities of the dead. Wherever you go you 
will see the white shaft, the tombstone, the mar- 
ble urn, the mound that hides the buried body of 
the well beloved. Everywhere some one is leav- 
ing these mortal shores, and the living close 
their no longer seeing eyes, fold their dead, still 
hands and prepare them for that sleep within the 
dust from which no tears, no heartache of long- 
ing, no beseeching, petitioning word of yearn- 
ing love can wake them. 

Ever5rwhere are the dead. 

In every house, sooner or later, with unbidden 
and unwelcome step comes the silent messenger 
— death. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5 1?' 

And yet, Christian Science has the audacity 
and mendacity to stand up before the sons of 
men and say there is — no death. 

Yonder at Boston, in Mount Auburn, behind 
the iron and guarded bars, deep within the 
depths of a voiceless tomb lies the mouldering 
and corrupting body, the dust, the whitening 
bones of a woman, who, in contradiction to that 
Lord who never called a woman to be an apostle, 
never appointed a woman to any office in the 
Church, never authorized or commissioned a 
woman to preach; in direct repudiation of the 
Holy Ghost and apostolic law which forbids a 
woman to teach and expressly commands her to 
be silent in the assembly of the saints; in that 
grave at Auburn lies the body of a woman who 
set up this false, this so called ^'Church" of 
Christian Science, denied matter, sin, sickness 
and said there was no such thing as death. 

To-night, over the tomb where this much- 
married, much-divorced woman lies moulder- 
ing, corrupt and forever broken, the living God 
whose Christ she burlesqued, counterfeited, be- 
trayed and denied, writes in burning letters of 



5 1 8 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

scintillating light these fearful and amazing 
words: 

''HERE ENDETH THE GREAT LIEr 

Russellism is another system of counterfeit 
Christianity. 

Annihilation of the finally impenitent is a doc- 
trine held and taught by different sects. 

The most prominent, the one whose books, 
whose literature has had the widest circulation 
and has been made known to, and more or less 
affected millions of people is the cult generally 
known as Russellism. 

Russellism teaches that before He was born 
into this world our Lord Jesus Christ was the 
Archangel Michael; that in giving birth to 
Jesus the Virgin Mary was giving birth to the 
archangel in human form. 

Jesus had but one nature, the nature of Adam 
before he sinned and fell. 

The fundamental principle of Russellism as 
of its kindred systems is, that death is the — cessa- 
tion of being. 

The fundamental principle of redemption is, 
that our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, not 



THE GREAT SEPARATION S 1 9 

only as a sacrifice for sin but as a substitute for 
the sinner, 

A substitute must pay in kind the obligation 
or debt of the principal whose place he takes. 

Since our Lord Jesus Christ must take the 
place and pay the penalty of those whom He re- 
deems and saves; since, according to the teach- 
ing of Russellism death is the cessation of being, 
then when our Lord Jesus Christ died. He 
ceased to be, He went out of existence, He was 
actually annihilated. 

The logic is unerring, sure, beyond question. 

The founder of Russellism accepted the logic 
and taught — 

The Annihilation of Our Lord's Hu- 
manity ON THE Cross. 

He taught that the man Jesus had ceased to 
exist; that when He died on the cross He was 
dead forever. 

That you may see this is no mere partisan, nor 
imaginative deduction of mine I will read to 
you some extracts from the text book of Russel- 
lism, ''Bible Studies," the very words and teach- 
ings of Russell himself. 



520 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Bible Studies, Volume J, page 3^^- 
''Our Lord's being or soul was non-existent 
during the period of death.'' 

Bible Studies, Volume I, page 2^0. 
^^His human existence ended on the cross/' 
Bible Studies, Volume ^, page 454- 
''It was necessary, not only that the man Christ 
Jesus should die, but just as necessary that the 
man Christ Jesus should never live again, should 

remain dead to all eternity." 

Bible Studies, Volume 2, page 155- 

"He has no further use for a human body." 

Bible Studies, Volume 2, page I2g. 

"We know nothing about what became of it 

(the body of the Lord after death) 

whether it (the body of our risen Lord) , was dis- 
solved into gases no one knows." 

Bible Studies, Volume ^, page 466. 
"The man Christ Jesus suffered for us death 
in the most absolute sense of the word — 'EVER- 
LASTING Destruction?' " 

Bible Studies, Volume ^, page 454- 
''The man Jesus is dead — FOREVER DEAD." 
In the nature of the case, if the personality of 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5 2 1 

a being is destroyed, it cannot be raised again 
from the dead — There is nothing to raise. Any 
so-called resurrection would not be a resurrec- 
tion but a distinct, new creation, as much so as 
that of the first man. As it would not be the same 
personality, but another and distinct personality 
from that which died, then, if Christ were ac- 
tually destroyed on the Cross as to soul and be- 
ing (and this is personality), any pretended res- 
urrection of Christ would be simply the pre- 
tended resurrection of another Christ. It would 
not be the original Christ but — a false Christ, 

This is the Christ Russellism preaches. 

The Christ Russellism preaches is a false 
Christ before he dies and another and pretended 
Christ in the pseudo-resurrection after he dies. 

The teaching of Russellism that our Lord 
Jesus Christ was the Archangel Michael, that 
he was annihilated on the cross, that His hu- 
manity was forever destroyed, and that His body 
was possibly turned to gas, to say nothing of the 
different bodies which it is said He assumed 
after His resurrection, bodies that were put on 
and dissolved into thin air at will, is a teaching 



522 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

SO full of blasphemy, so coarse, so utterly brutal, 
so wholly devilish and wicked that human lan- 
guage furnishes no vocabulary of sufficiently 
keen and cauterizing words or phrases whereby 
I may denounce as I describe its vulgarism 
and mad treason against the Son of God. 

Like the author of Christian Science the 
founder of Russellism has descended into the 
grave, and as the rich man of old, has awakened 
to find that death does not end all ; and that the 
being and existence which denied the wonder 
and glory of the person of our Lord still con- 
tinues, but as a condition where repentance is of 
no avail, where the awakening comes too late. 

I am unwilling to go into any further analysis 
of this system now, this system which offers a 
second chance to all who have died out of Christ 
and puts a premium on sin by assuring those who 
are determined to die without Christ that the 
more they yield to sin here, the more probable 
it will be when the second chance is given 
they will accept and at last be saved ; and that 
those who do not care to accept the Gospel of- 
fered them will be permitted to die the second 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 523 

death and be blotted out of existence. In other 
words, no matter how often they may have re- 
jected Christ they will have another chance to 
be saved, and if they prefer annihilation, if they 
wish to be asphyxiated, smothered out by fire 
into eternal unconsciousness, everlasting destruc- 
tion, eternal cessation of being they can have 
that privilege. 

According to Russellism there is no such 
thing as future, endless, conscious punishment 
for sin. 

This Gospel of Russellism ought to be hailed 
with joy by every thief and murderer. 

There are always two immense outlooks : 

Reject the Gospel, commit all the sin you like, 
die, be unconscious, be brought into existence 
again, have another chance to hear the Gospel, 
accept, be saved and enjoy eternal felicity. 

Reject the Gospel, live a life of sin to the full- 
est capacity, then become unconscious or go out 
of being, be brought to life again, have the gos- 
pel presented, be given a hundred years of pro- 
bation to live as Adam lived before he sinned, 
then reject the Gospel and go out of existence. 



524 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

Surely, this is a gospel that ought to win con- 
verts in every jail. 

Beyond question it is a gospel that fills the 
Devil with delight. 

When Christ comes the followers of Russell 
will be left outside the gate to woe and death 
here — then will they indeed be raised from the 
dead in the second resurrection, die a second 
time, lose their bodies in the destroying fire, but 
instead of annihilation — as bodiless ghosts exist 
forever under the wrath of that God and Christ 
they were taught to deny. 

False teachers in the professing Church will 
he left behind. 

Teachers in the Church who deny the Virgin 
Birth, 

The issue in the Virgin Birth is clear and sim- 
ple. It is, whether God the Father actually as 
a father begot Jesus out of Mary; or, whether 
He was begotten by a human father. 

If he were begotten by a human father (asr^ 
personality comes from the father and not the.^/ 
mother) his personality was finite, not infinite. 
If He were finite and not infinite He was not 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 525 

God. If He were not God He was not the Sec- 
ond Person of the Trinity. If He were not the 
Second Person of the Trinity then none is, there 
is no Trinity. If He were not the Second Per- 
son of the Trinity and therefore not God, He 
could not raise Himself from the dead; but 
since in Scripture the Trinity, Father Son and 
Holy Spirit are always seen working together 
and never apart; as the Father is said to raise 
the Son, and the Spirit is said to raise the Son, 
and the Son is said to raise Himself; and as the 
Father and the Spirit could not raise the Son 
unless the Son worked as God in concert with 
them, then as He was not God and could not 
raise Himself and therefore could not work in 
concert with them, then the Father did not raise 
Him, the Spirit did not raise Him, He never 
was raised from the dead. 

Deny the Virgin Birth, the logic of it not only 
sweeps away the divine Trinity, it shuts Christ 
up in His grave forever and sweeps Christianity 
as a revealed faith from God out of the world 
forever. 

No matter how much the teacher may say he 



5^^ THE GREAT SEPARATION 

believes in the resurrection of Christ, his doc- 
trine belies his profession the moment he denies 
the Virgin Birth. Without that, on the basis of 
the Scripture doctrine of the Trinity resurrec- 
tion is impossible. 

Such teachers deny the Lord who bought 
them and can have no part v^ith Christ v^hen He 
comes. 

Teachers who deny the blood of Christ will 
be left behind. 

Those who deny the redeeming value of the 
blood of Christ are like Cain, who ignored the 
moral and judicial distance between himself and 
God, refused to recognize that the penalty of 
death was upon him and that his only ground 
of approach to a holy God was by and through 
an atoning sacrifice; his only hope of accept- 
ance in offering a substitute to meet the claims 
of God against him. Like Cain they turn away 
from the sacrifice, the sacrifice of the cross, offer 
to God the culture of the flesh, their own good 
works, their own character, and like Cain are re- 
pudiated and rejected of God who insistently 
and graciously bids them offer the sin-offering 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5^7 

which, as in Cain's day ^'lieth at the door," the 
crucified Christ, offer Him and be saved. 

In denying the blood these teachers and all 
who follow their evil way are face to face with 
the solemn Word of God. 

^^ Without shedding of blood is no remission/' 

No! it is blood all the way down from the be- 
ginning, blood the only way of hope for lost and 
sinful man. 

Blood there at Eden's gates, the blood of sac- 
rifice, the covering of nakedness with the cover 
made from the skins of the bleeding victim, blood 
the only ground on which the guilty pair could 
turn and face the world and claim the right to 
live. Blood on Abel's altar making it a better 
offering than that of Cain. Blood on Abraham's 
altar on Mount Moriah, the blood of a provided 
substitute which saved his son. Blood on that 
passover night in Egypt which saved the people 
of Israel from the sentence of death against the 
first born in the land. Blood on the brazen altar 
and the golden altar and the ark of the covenant 
in the wilderness. Blood sprinkling the book of 
the covenant Blood yonder on the cross, the 



528 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

blood of Him who was the foreordained Lamb 
of God. All the blood of all the offerings spell- 
ing as they spilled, the blood of Christ and out 
of every crimson drop crying, ^^The blood of 
Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 
Blood on the throne of God, turning it from a 
throne of judgment to a throne of grace. The 
blood that alone gives right and undisputed title 
to enter the gates of pearl. Yes ! those who deny 
the blood deny the whole crimson illuminated 
path from grace to glory, deny the only way of 
salvation God has revealed to men. 

He who denies the blood of Christ proclaims 
himself outside the blood-sealed covenant of 
grace and will be left outside the blood-bought 
and Heaven-provided home. 

All unbelievers will be left behind when 
Christ comes for His Church. 

What a fearful separation will take place. 

The fearfulness of it lies in the fact of its im- 
minency. 

It might be at any time. 

There is nothing between us and that separa- 
tion but the coming of Christ 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 5^9 

There is nothing between us and that coming 
but the sound of His trump. 

Should the trumpet sound the elect of God 
in Christ would be caught up to meet a coming 
Lord. 

All others would be left behind. 

And there is no hope for those who shall be 
left behind. 

They did not care for the truth when they 
had it. 

They ignored it. 

Some of them resist^td it 

Others mocked and made light of it 

God does not forget. 

Since they would not have the truth, He will 
send them strong delusion. 

He will allow them to be taken as in a snare. 
He will allow them to be captivated, seduced 
and completely caught by the Great Lie that is 
coming on the earth. 

They would not have the true Christ. 

They shall be caught in the toils of a false 
Christ. 

They would not be saved. 



530 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

He will see to it that they shall all be damned. 

Hear what is written in the Holy Book: 

"And for this cause God shall send them 
strong delusion, that they should believe the lie: 

"That they all might be damned who believed 
not the truth." 

He sent the Spirit to convict them of the truth. 

They resisted the Spirit of truth. 

He will send them the deceiving spirit of un- 
truth. 

They will yield to that spirit and accept the 
lie. 

The Holy Spirit would have been their seal 
unto life eternal. 

The Spirit of untruth of open falsehood shall 
be their seal unto eternal death. 

Unbeliever! if Christ came to-night the door 
of hope and salvation would be shut. 

You would be left out. 

Separation from all who have believed. 

What a separation! 

To all I have said there are two corollaries: 

I. Every one of you who professes the name 
of Christ should come out and make your call- 
ing and election sure. 



THE GREAT SEPARATION 53^ 

That means, find out whether you really be- 
lieve or whether you have only a name to live 
and are actually, spiritually dead. Find out 
whether you are indifferent to the claims of God 
and Christ. 

Find out whether the Christian profession is 
an irksome or a joyous thing to you. 

Arouse ! because the time may be short. 

Arouse! because a separation will take place 
between those who are really Christ's and those 
who have only the profession of His name. 

Nothing could be sadder than to be a mere 
professor when Christ comes. 

Nothing can be sadder than to hare your name 
written in the book of the Church down here,, 
and not in the book of life of the Church in 
Heaven, up there. 

Nothing could be sadder, more heart-breaking 
than to hear Him say — in that hour: 

^^I know you not whence ye are — depart from 
mer 

2. It is time that you who make no profession 
of His name should arouse. 

There is no question, no need to question what 



532 THE GREAT SEPARATION 

would befall you if Christ should come before 
morning. 

If He came and found you as you are, an un- 
believer, walking after the flesh and not after the 
Spirit you would be left behind to certain woe. 

Do not trifle with your purchased oppor- 
tunity. 

Grace offers it to you. 

Judgment will not return it to you. 

Of all follies none is greater than to purchase 
a cup of eternal woe hereafter for the price of a 
brimming, but brief cup of pleasure now. 

Whatever else hell may be, it is hell, and will 
be hell, to look back at lost opportunities. 

It is hell to have enjoyed the pleasures of sin 
for a season, and lose the pleasures of heaven 
forever. 

The gulf is not yet fixed. 

If Christ should come, then between you and 
those who are His — the gulf will be fixed for- 
ever. 

There is no bridge. 

It yawns bridgeless forever — a wide — meas- 
ureless — eternal gulf of separation. 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 



The Great Tribulation. 



"For then shall be great tribulation such as 
was not since the beginning of the world to this 
time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24: 21). 

In presenting this theme I shall divide it into 
four simple parts : 

1. The Cause of the Great Tribulation. 

2. The Character of the Great Tribulation. 

3. The Dramatic Ending of the Great Tribu- 
lation. 

4. The Beginning of the Great Tribulation. 
I. The Cause of the Great Tribulation. 
The cause is threefold : 

Moral. 

Satanic. 

Judicial. 

It is moral. 

The moral cause is found in the failure of the 
Gentile nations to fulfill the commission granted 
to them of God. 

God granted this commission in the days of 
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. 



^^6 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

He granted it to them because of the failure 
of the Jews to fulfill the commission He had 
originally given to them. 

He had called the children of Israel to be His 
peculiar people. He had separated them from 
all other nations unto Himself. He had by an 
outstretched arm and mighty power planted 
them in the land of Palestine. He ordained this 
land to be the geographical center of the earth 
and His chosen people to be the political and 
governmental center. He purposed to send 
them His own Son to be their incarnate King 
and through Him and them rule the world in 
righteousness and peace, bringing blessing and 
benefaction to every creature. 

The nation had utterly failed. Ten tribes had 
gone into idolatry. The Assyrians came and 
carried them captives into Adiabene, into the 
East, and for twenty-five hundred years they 
have been nationally and historically lost. 

The remaining two tribes likewise turned to 
idolatry. Then Nebuchadnezzar, king of Bab- 
ylon, besieged Jerusalem, took it and carried the 
people captive to Babylon, the golden city. 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 537 

The Lord at once proposed to transfer the 
rulership of the world officially from the hand 
of the Jew to the Gentile. 

He would put an end to Jewish time and bring 
in Gentile time — ^^The times of the Gentiles/' 

He now purposed to rule the world through 
four successive Gentile world powers. 

These powers He indicated in the different 
materials of the statue or image which Nebu- 
chadnezzar saw in his dream and forgot, and 
which Daniel, one of the Hebrew captives in 
Babylon, under the inspiration of God inter- 
preted. 

There were four metals in the image : 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Brass. 

Iron. 

The iron was mixed with brittle, incohesive 
clay. 

The gold set forth Babylon. 

Silver — Medo-Persia. 

Brass — Greece. 

Iron in the two legs the Roman empire under 



53 S THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

its first political division into Western and 
Eastern Empire. 

The iron and clay mixed in the ten toes, the 
ten-fold confederation or the second and final 
division of the fourth or Roman empire. 

These four empires or kingdoms are corrob- 
orated and further illustrated by a vision which 
later on God gave to Daniel himself in which he 
saw four wild beasts rise up out of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. 

The first was — a lion. 

The second — a hear. 

The third — a leopard. 

The fourth — a monster with ten horns. 

The lion is — Babylon. 

The hear — Medo-Persia, 

The leopard — Greece, 

The monster — Rome, 

Two of these kingdoms were precised and 
named in a still later vision given to Daniel. 

He saw a ram pushing toward the west. 

He saw a he goat rushing to the east to meet 
him, overthrow him and trample him under foot. 

The ram is Medo-Persia, the he goat Greece, 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 539 

and the symbolic prophecy concerning Greece 
comes on down to our day. 

The Lord warned that this rulership in the 
hands of the Gentiles would prove a failure as 
everything which God has ever entrusted to man. 

This announced failure is to be seen in the de- 
terioration or descent in the character of the 
metals as named in their order in the image. 

First, gold, then silver, then brass, after that 
iron, and last of all clay which is corrupt, disin- 
tegrated stone, is brittle, incohesive, may be 
massed together, but is never united. 

Gold sets forth rulership directly from the 
hand of God and is the symbol and seal of '^the 
divine right of kings." 

The clay stands for the people, for man in the 
mass. 

This may be seen in the statement of Saint 
Paul: 

"O man, who art thou that repliest against 
God? Shall the thing formed say to him that 
formed it. Why hast thou made me thus? 

"Hath not the potter power over the clay, of 



540 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

the same lump to make one vessel unto honour 
and another unto dishonour/' 

Man as man is here compared to clay. 

This is corroborated by the prophet Isaiah. 

"But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we 
are the clay, and Thou our potter." 

The Lord Himself speaking to Israel says: 

"As the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in 
mine hand, O house of Israel." 

Israel is the figure of the natural man, man 
seen as to genus, in the mass, the people. 

Clay sets forth the people. 

As each material of which the statue is formed 
indicates distinctive political rule, then the clay 
symbolizes rule in the hand of the people. The 
Greek word for people is deemos, from which 
we get our word democracy. The rule of the 
people, government in the hands of the people. 

Thus the clay in the image is a picture of de- 
mocracy. Gold represents monarchy, is the first 
in order in the statue, and sets forth that form 
of government which is directly from the hand 
of God — as Daniel says when addressing Nebu- 
chadnezzar: 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 541 

"Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the 
God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, 
power, and strength, and glory. * * * and 
hath made thee ruler/^ 

The clay is the last form of rule, is the result 
of the overthrow and departure from the previ- 
ous forms of monarchy and is the farthest away 
from the direct ordination of God. 

Clay is brittle, easily broken into separate 
pieces and scattered. It is in itself the symbol of 
weakness and final failure in government. 

It was a prophecy that rulership in the hands 
of the Gentiles would become successively far- 
ther and farther away from God. 

This symbolic prophecy has been and is now 
being fulfilled. 

Cyrus at the head of his Persian host came 
against Babylon and overthrew it. 

Babylon failed because Nebuchadnezzar for- 
getting he had received his grant of power from 
the hand of the Most High God, walked about 
Babylon, and as he looked at its grandeur, at the 
lifted height of the tower of Belus, the arcaded, 
marble streets, the hanging gardens and all the 



542 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

wonder and glory of the marvellous city, filled 
Vith pride and boastful exaltation said: 

"Is not this great Babylon, that / have built 
for the house of the kingdom, by the might of 
my power, and for the honour of my majesty?^' 

After him his grandson, Belshazzar, gathered 
his debauched courtiers, his harem of beau- 
tiful concubines and holding high revel in the 
banqueting hall of his palace, drank wine out of 
the golden vessels taken from the temple of God 
in Jerusalem, praised the gods of Babylon, 
praised, debauched and danced at the very hour 
when Cyrus and his glittering soldiery sweeping 
in upon the drunken revellers, slew them and 
took the kingdom. 

Greece overthrew Medo-Persia. 

Medo-Persia failed because, although God 
had named and ordained Cyrus before he was 
born, the kingdom under successive rulers de- 
parted as a nation more and more from the will 
of God. 

Then from her seven hills Rome arose and 
overthrew Greece. 

Greece failed becauee Alexander of Macedon 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 543 

led his Greeks to Babylon, won victory after vic- 
tory, swept everything before him and forget- 
ting that the hand of God had opened the gates 
of conquest for him, exalted himself and claimed 
the place, the honors and the adoration belong- 
ing to God. God smote him in a drunken Baby- 
lonian orgy, smashed his empire into four great 
parts, brought Greece back to her original 
boundaries ; and it was this Greece, crushed and 
limited that Rome overthrew. 

In fulfillment of the symbolic forecast of the 
two legs of iron Rome was divided into Western 
and Eastern Empire. 

The Western Empire came to an end in the 
fifth century. 

It began with a Romulus and ended with a 
Romulus. It lasted about twelve hundred years. 

The Eastern Empire came to an end in 1453, 
when the Turks defeated John Palaeologus and 
took Constantinople. The empire had lasted a 
thousand years. 

The nations occupying the territory of these 
four original kingdoms have been erected out of 
them or built upon their ruin§, 



544 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

All these nations, with the exception of the 
Turkish Empire, are, so-called, Christian na- 
tions. 

The Turks are neither idolaters nor pagans. 
They are believers in God, but repudiate our 
Lord Jesus Christ, as God the Son and only 
Saviour. 

Only one of these so-called Christian nations 
is Protestant; all the others are officially Cath- 
olic. 

The history of these professed Christian na- 
tions has been a history of intrigue, diplomatic 
gambling, chicanery, fraud, war, conflict and 
confusion, tyranny, oppression, revolution and 
despotism. 

To-day all the nations within the limit of the 
once Roman Empire are engaged in the blood- 
iest and most wanton of all wars. Millions of 
lives are being sacrificed in battle, in hospital, 
in sickness and disease. Treasure is poured out 
like flowing streams. All the standards of civ- 
ilization are broken down and trampled in the 
mire of blood. 

We have now reached the stage of the clay — ^ 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 545 

^democracy; or, if you like, republicanism — the 
rule of the people. 

The rule of the people, democracy, is, practi- 
cally, universal. England is more democratic 
than the United States. George the Fifth, king 
of England, is nothing more than a figure-head, 
whose word, thought, advice, wish or sugges- 
tion, count for nothing. He is a negligible quan- 
tity. He has no influence in legislating a law, 
shaping a policy or moulding a campaign. All 
the insignia of royalty and the baubles of rank 
and power are in final terms, meaningless. 

France is a republic built upon a decapitated 
monarchy. 

Spain has a king, but the present dynasty is 
the result of a revolution, the people are waiting 
the opportunity to overturn the kingdom and 
like Portugal set up the rule of democracy. 

Italy, like England, is a monarchy only in 
name. Legislation is in the hand of a demo- 
cratic parliament. 

In incohesion, revolution and lack of unity 
constitute some of the elements and character- 
istics of democracy, then Greece is democratic. 



546 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

The Balkans in their increasing conflict, riot, 
confusion and rebellion bear witness both to the 
rule and misrule of the people. 

Before the war the Socialists in the Reichstao' 
of Germany were the emphasized and aggressive 
minority which put a check upon and gave 
warning to the monarchy. The war has simply 
damned up the spirit of revolution and unrest, 
in the meantime gathering force and determina- 
tion to break, sooner or later, over all bounds. 

From the days of Nebuchadnezzar until this 
day human government in the hands of the Gen- 
tiles has been a costly failure. 

It is not necessary to speak of Nebuchadnex- 
zar nor the debauchery of a Belshazzar. It is 
not necessary to speak of Rome, of the Twelve 
Caesars, of emperors elected by Praetorian guards 
or made such by an assassin's knife or a poison- 
er's cup. Come down to the days nearer our 
own time. 

Read the story of England. The conflicts and 
the wars. Read the record of the War of the 
Roses, where professedly for the sake of a white 
or a red rose men cut each other's throat .and 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 547 

soaked the land in blood, but fought actually 
that the few might live at the expense of the 
many. Read the story of the Four Georges as 
described by the incomparable pen and the keen 
satire of a Thackeray. 

Look at France in the zenith of her glory 
under a Louis Fourteenth, le rot soliel, the sun 
king. Look at that palace at Versailles, built in 
the place of a swamp, the foundation alone cost- 
ing so much that it bankrupted the nation. Go 
through the palace where titled women felt it 
their highest privilege to yield to the demands 
and pleasures of a king's unbridled sensualism. 
Go through the palace and read the things scrib- 
bled on wall and door by a lecherous monarch; 
go out into the green park, into the Grand and 
Little Trianon; observe the traps, the secret 
doors, the sliding panels, the tempting boudoirs; 
read the story of the reign of Louis the Sixteenth, 
the man who was more successful as a locksmith 
than a monarch; go down to the little Swiss 
village built for a queen that she might play the 
part of a beautiful milk-maid; watch her sur- 
rounded by her court of light and easy virtue 



548 THE GREAT TRIBULATION, 

beauties, the crowd of polite and profligate 
princes as they laugh and jest and say, ^'After us 
the deluge" ; while over the hedge row there the 
gamins from the streets of Paris, the bag and 
hatchet women, the women from Saint Antoine 
and the markets are crying, "bread, bread, give 
us bread." 

Go behind the cabinet doors of the nations 
now engaged in war. See the treaties torn to 
shreds as of no more value than so much "white 
paper," listen to the intrigue, the kingly and min- 
isterial lying that caused the swords to leap from 
scabbards and the shells to echo from the can- 
non's mouth. 

The Gentile governments have failed to glor- 
ify God and establish righteousness. They have 
been unable to maintain peace except at inter- 
vals and then only by the sharpness of the sword. 
They have failed to produce the greatest good 
to the greatest number. They have made the 
rich to grow richer and the poor, poorer. They 
have filled the earth not only with tryanny and 
oppression, riot, revolution, rebellion, war and 
confusion, but, led men to repudiate God and cry 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 549 

out against His rule as well as the rule of tyrants 
and oppressors, the conquerors and despots who 
claimed authority in His name. 

This utter and moral failure on the part of the 
Gentile nations and particularly so on the part 
of the so-called Christian nations is one of the 
contributing causes which will bring on the 
Great Tribulation. 

The second cause is Satanic. 

God created a great angel, the Chief of the 
Cherubim. 

He was perfect, beautiful. 

He was Lucifer, son of the morning. 

God gave him this world in its original crea- 
tion as a province in the infinite empire that with 
his subject angels he might live in it and rule it 
to the glory of God. 

He became lifted up with pride at his own 
beauty, wisdom and power. He was unwilling 
to be a subordinate god. He would rule the 
world for himself. He and his angels rebelled. 
God overthrew them. The earth received the 
shock and fell into a cataclysmic chaos. Like a 
great funeral hearse it glided through space, a 



550 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

black, sunless, silent thing. How long this state 
lasted is not of the record. Then God lifted it 
out of its rayless night, reformed it, created man 
and set him up to be the ruler in the place of him 
who by his rebellion had become a Devil, a scan- 
dalizer and that Satan who is the adversary, the 
antagonist and abiding negative to God's eternal 
positive. 

The Devil tempted man with the same ambi- 
tion which caused his own fall. 

He offered him role and rulership as God of 
this world, but, in partnership with himself. 

He led man to turn his back on God. 

Man became the Devil's incarnation, his dupe 
and slave. 

The Devil led him into false religions, into 
idolatry and infidelic philosophies. He it is who 
has been behind the governments of the world, 
behind the thrones of emperors and the chairs 
of presidents; behind intrigue, diplomacy and 
war. 

Two thousand years ago God sent His Son 
into the world as the new, the second and the 
last man. 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 5S^ 

The Devil attempted to tempt Him as he did 
the first man. He offered Him the rulership of 
the world in partnership with himself on condi- 
tion that He would own him as supreme, then 
he would use all his power to make Him the 
outward and manifested God of this world. As 
he had destroyed the relation between God and 
the first man he would now invalidate the incar- 
nation by making the humanity of Christ the 
medium for his own manifestation and visibility 
in the flesh. 

He failed. 

The Son of God was crucified as a sacrifice 
for sin, rose, ascended to heaven and took His 
seat upon the infinite throne as the giver of new 
and eternal life to men. He began the creation 
of His Church as His spiritual Body on the 
earth. 

The Devil at once sought to tempt the Church 
and render it inert. He offered it the same old 
temptation he had offered to the Son of God — 
the rulership of the world. 

The Church yielded to the temptation. 

It repudiated the attitude of separation from 



552 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

and pilgrimage through the world. It became a 
Church of State, supported by the governments 
of earth and identified with them. 

Rome is the historic professing Church. For 
centuries she ruled the world till the very men- 
tion of her name caused even kings to tremble. 
She so ruled and terrorized, tortured and slew 
all opposed to her; so filled her pathway with 
the blood of martyrs, shut out light and truth; 
so brought in spiritual ignorance, ecclesiastical 
superstition and idolatry, that the epoch of her 
unhindered domination is known as ^Uhe dark 
ages!^ 

Some four hundred years ago the Reformation 
broke out and on the waves of its protest Rome 
for a while was tossed and swept downward to 
the Mediterranean. The Protestant Church 
went forth with the rallying cry of "The world's 
conversion," and the spiritual conquest of it 
through the Gospel, and — failed. To-day, the 
professing Church (the Protestant) is seeking 
to make an alliance with world thought and 
world culture, concedes to the modern idea of 
socialistic redemption, yields to the so-called 



i 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 553 

^'higher" criticism of its Bible and theology and 
does so that it may get a more influential grasp 
upon the world itself and fulfill its now inhering 
ambition for rulership. 

By this Satanic suggestion of world empire 
has the professing Church been deceived, so 
blinded and hindered that it has lost sight of the 
original ministry*committed to it and the place 
it should occupy till the Lord returns. 

But, in the professing Church the Lord has 
His elect, those who constitute the real body of 
Christ and through the operation of the Spirit 
dwelling in them Satan has been checked and 
restrained. 

Since the incarnation of God's Son, however, 
the supreme ambition of the Devil has been to 
match it with the incarnation of himself. He 
seeks to find a man in whom he may enthrone 
himself with all the marvel and miracle of the 
Christ and through him become the unique and 
indisputable god of the world. 

He knows his doom. He knows God will per- 
mit him to find his man and for a season through 
him deceive the sons of men and reign in the 



554 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

midst of their welcoming applause as very god 
incarnate. 

He knows his time is short, and as the age 
draws to a close and the hour of consummation 
comes on, he will unloose all the bonds of wick- 
edness, stir up all hindering forces of unright- 
eousness, unbelief, infidelity and lawlessness and 
prepare the way for his anticipated and long 
coveted moment of subtle, yet spectacular 
triumph. 

There are two immense movements of thought 
which may well inspire every thinker to stand 
upon the alert. 

On the one side there is the constantly grow- 
ing effort to deny and entirely repudiate the doc- 
trine of the deity of Christ. You will hear and 
read eulogium after eulogium of His manhood 
and the exceeding greatness and marvel of that 
manhood; but, the slightest analysis will show 
that this exaltation of His human character is a 
blind behind which His enemies are seeking to 
undermine His essential standing and relation- 
ship as God of God and very God of very God. 

This setting aside of the plain scriptural state- 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 555 

mcnt that the fulness of the deity dwelleth in 
Him bodily comes not only from open infidels, 
from those who refuse to accept the Bible as a 
revelation from God, but from those inside the 
Church, from those who profess to be ministers 
and teachers of Christ; men who have been 
graduated from our theological institutions; 
who enter our pulpits and talk mouthingly of the 
sweetness and beauty of Christ; who dwell upon 
His moral grandeur. His moral sacrifice. His 
devotedness of self in the interests of others; 
men who pass lightly over His birth, who find 
in it no greater miracle than that which occurs 
in the wonderful birth of every child; who find 
His miracles only in His deeds of kindness, in 
the purity of His every day life; who talk of 
His death as a martyrdom due to the ignorance 
and intrigue of men; who talk of His resurrec- 
tion simply as the passing on of a deathless spirit 
and the rising up on account of the unselfish 
character of His death, of the truth and strength 
of the larger and more advanced humanity He 
came to represent. These men speak so much 



556 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

of Christ on earth that little thought is awarded 
Him as a living person in heaven. 

The skill and subtlety with which these teach- 
ers denude the Son of God of His deity, His 
divine attributes are so great, so thoroughly 
"modern" and "progressive," that insensibly 
Christ comes to be regarded rather as a living 
principle and is no longer thought of and wor- 
shipped as the mighty God, "Maker of heaven 
and earth," and the final personal and visible 
judge of all mankind. 

On the other hand, everjrwhere there is the 
exaltation of man. The great things he has done 
and is doing are catalogued and continually re- 
peated. He bridges gulfs. He tunnels moun- 
tains. He sails the sea, on the sea and under the 
sea. He can talk without wires and send his mes- 
sage round the earth in a quick and girdling 
flash. He can fly up Into the heavens with ma- 
chines that are heavier than air and hopes some 
day (and secretly believes it) in spite of atmos- 
pheric pressure to cross the threshold of other 
^vorlds. Winds and waves obey him. He has 
harnessed nature's forces. Because of his multi- 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 557 

plied and amazing triumph the question is in- 
creasingly repeated : 

^What will not man do next?" 

Everywhere man is being exalted into the 
realm of deity. In proportion as the deity of 
Christ is openly denied, the deity of man is per- 
sistently suggested. 

If I were to stand before an audience of the 
world and afBrm that Jesus of Nazareth was 
God manifest in the flesh; that He it was who 
before His incarnation created all things; that 
He is even now the great God who upholdeth all 
things by the word of His power, there might be 
a few who would not be startled ; but, the great 
majority would give no sign of acceptance or 
approval; should I, however, stand before the 
same audience and suggest that man might yet 
show himself to be divine, to have in himself 
resident deific powers that would eventually 
make him as very god in this world, there would 
be an almost instant acceptance of the proposi- 
tion and generous applause. 

And when you look yonder at Saint Peter's in 
Rome on a feast day, see the vast building 



5 5 8 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

filled with thousands of people; and when the 
pope is brought in on the shoulders of ^'the 
noble guard," the people falling down, prostrat- 
ing themselves and calling him "Holy Father," 
"Our Lord God, the Pope"; when women in 
this country kneel before a "swami" from India, 
kiss his not over clean feet and beg the privilege 
of touching but the hem of his garment in the 
belief that some deific and harmonious wave will 
be distilled and undulate within their wide open 
and receptive souls; when thousands of the 
baser sort will pack the streets of a city to see a 
victorious prize fighter, some superior bruiser of 
his fellow man and give him an ovation ; when, 
in short, the spirit of hero worship seemingly 
innate in man waits only an opportunity to ex- 
press itself sometimes in a delirium of surrender 
to the idol of the hour it is not difficult to see 
how, should some man arrive with occult pow- 
ers, doing great signs and wonders, proving him- 
self the master of nature's laws, it is not difficult 
to see how such an one might be owned and 
worshipped by the impressionable multitude as 
very god. 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 559 

The way is being prepared for Satan's man 
and Satan's exaltation through him as the god 
of the world. 

The third cause which will bring on the Great 
Tribulation is — 

Judicial. 

It will be the judicial action of God. 

God judges and punishes nations as He judges 
and punishes individuals. 

Just as He smote Israel and Babylon, Medo- 
Persia, Greece and Rome, so will He smite the 
nations of the earth to-day. He has a contro- 
versy with them and, specially, with those na- 
tions which calls themselves, ^^Christian." 

He will allow evil to multiply and head itself 
up in all its hideousness. He will take off re- 
straint that iniquity may reveal itself. He will 
allow it to grow bold, aggressive and defiant. 
He will take the wickedness of man, violence, 
the sword, famine and pestilence, all the logical 
consequences of sin, of disobedience to His will 
and law. He will take all these forces and make 
use of them as His scourge, as ^'the rod of His 
anger," 



56o THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

It is worse than folly to attempt to apologize 
for God or eliminate Him from relationship to 
the forces of unrighteousness, of moral and phys- 
ical destruction in the world. He Himself dis- 
tinctly says : 

"I will send the sword, the famine and the 
pestilence among them, till they be consumed 
from off the land that I have given unto them." 

"And I will persecute them with the sword, 
with the famine, and with the pestilence." 

"I will punish them that dwell in the land of 
Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the 
sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence." 

"So will I send upon you famine and evil 
beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pesti- 
lence and blood shall pass through thee; and I 
will bring the sword upon thee, 1 the Lord have 
spoken it." 

"He that is in the field shall die with the 
sword; and he that is in the city, famine and 
pestilence shall devour him." 

"If I send a pestilence into that land.*' 

"I have sent among you the pestilence after the 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 561 

manner of Egypt; your young men have I slain 
with the sword." 

He makes use of one nation to punish another. 

'Tor thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will 
bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with 
horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, 
and companies, and much people. 

He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in 
the field." 

Thus the threefold cause of the coming Great 
Tribulation will be moral, Satanic and judicial. 
The moral failure of the nations in the grant of 
power given to them, the activity of Satan look- 
ing and moving toward his pseudo incarnation 
in humanity and the judgment of God, using 
these things as the whips and the scourges with 
which to smite the unrighteousness of man. 
II, The Character of the Great Tribulation, 

There will be world-wide war. 

The battle line will be flung round the far cir- 
cumference of the earth. There will not be a 
spot on the globe where the tramp of armed men 
shall not be heard and the roar of conflict filling 



562 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

the air. It will not be the battle of mere armies, 
forays and predatory expeditions, but the rush 
of nation against nation and race against race. 
The whole earth shall be filled with violence. 

Lawlessnesses shall be multiplied, not only the 
lawlessness that shall violate all national and in- 
ternational pledges and look upon a treaty as of 
no more value than a "scrap" of paper, but law- 
lessness in social and individual life, the break- 
ing down and throwing to the winds of old stand- 
ards. The people will be in a state of revolt, not 
only against kings and rulers, but against condi- 
tions. They will rush like the rushing of the 
seas, unrest, tumult and turmoil will sweep like 
tidal waves bursting over all distinctions be- 
tween rich and poor, capital and labor. The 
rich will become the prey of the mob and ac- 
cumulated wealth in the hands of the few will 
be seized and scattered like grains of sand; as 
it is written: 

"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and wail for 
your miseries that are coming on you. 

"Your riches are corrupted, and your garments 
are moth eaten. 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 563 

"Your gold and silver are covered with rust; 
and the rust of them shall be a witness against 
you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. Ye have 
stored up treasure for the last days." 

There shall be distress of nations. We are 
told that women shall enter into rule and because 
of the scarcity of men women shall seek after 
them and desire them. ^Tn that day seven wom- 
en shall take hold of one man, saying, we will 
eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; 
only let us be called by thy name, to take away 
our reproach"; then shall there be a time of 
manners and customs in which the license of the 
days of the Directory shall seem in comparison 
as virtue itself. 

Famine shall be abroad, not local famine, but 
world-wide, gaunt faces and starving multitudes. 
Everywhere the cry for bread, young and old 
dying for want of food. 

Green-eyed pestilence will walk hand in hand 
with famine, the pestilence that will rise ghoul- 
like from the unburied dead of battle, the poison 
floating through the air, speeding on its way at 
midnight and wasting at noonday. 



564 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

Out of this famine and pestilence vice and 
crime as twin terrors shall be born and clutch the 
throats of righteousness and truth. 

As a consequence of war there will be a revolt 
of revolts. 

People will refuse any longer to be led like 
beasts to the slaughter. They shall ask them- 
selves, "Why should we fight or die like sense- 
less brutes for kings, for the sake of a name, a 
dynasty, a throne?" 

There will be a smash up politically in all di- 
rections. Cabinets will fall, kings and rulers 
will be set aside. The people will seize the 
powers of government; but they will soon dis- 
cover that democracy left to itself is no better 
than brittle, breakable clay, incapable of cohe- 
sion, without inhering strength, susceptible of 
being massed, but not unified, massed and com- 
pacted and held together only by a weight and 
pressure exterior to itself ; for the immense truth 
is, the strength of democracy is its weakness. Its 
strength is individualism, the protest of personal- 
ism against the limitation of personalism; but 
the moment one or more individuals begin to 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION S^S 

combine to secure increased strength in govern- 
mental administration then individualism re- 
volts against the combination as a menace to 
personalism, a limitation of its freedom. In the 
nature of the case therefore, there must always 
be an inner spirit of revolt in democracy; al- 
ways democracy must be on the point of giving 
birth to a revolution. Revolution is and must be 
the chronic outcome of democracy. There can 
be no finality, no fixity in personalism. It must 
always be developing, "progressing/' seeking 
wider freedom for itself. Necessarily therefore, 
there can be no final fixity or form in essential 
democracy, it must be always on the threshold of 
change, of overthrow of existing things. 

But back of every other element in human na- 
ture is the law of self defence. Sooner or later 
this law operates in democracy and in propor- 
tion as there is suffering from the anarchial tend- 
ency inherent in it, there is an instinctive, in- 
voluntary outreach and swing over to centrality, 
the demand for a strong hand to control. The 
self interest of personalism produces this final 
demand for concentrated power to save it from 



566 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

atomic attrition, the lawless independence of one 
personalism with another. 

Such a condition of things will cause the re- 
volting people to seek for "iron" men, with 
"iron" hands who can rally the elements of law 
and order and under the pressure of external 
power bring in the cohesion required for secur- 
ity. The people therefore will elect for them- 
selves, soldiers, conquerors, men who can control 
the mob. 

As a consequence of this surge and resurge and 
the constant changing of the map ten democratic 
kingdoms will be erected within the territory 
once occupied by the Western and Eastern Em- 
pire of Rome, the territory once covered succes- 
sively by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and 
Rome. 

Four of these kings or kingdoms we know. 
They will be the four into which the empire of 
Alexander was divided and which Scripture as- 
sures us will be revived in the closing hours of 
this age. These four are the kingdoms of Selu- 
cis, which included Syria, all east of the Taurus 
mountains, Babylon and Persia; the kingdom of 
Ptolemy which took in Egypt; the kingdom of 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 567 

Cassander, that is, Greece and Macedonia; and 
the kingdom of Lysimachus, covering Rou- 
mania, all the country to Constantinople and east 
to the Taurus. Egypt and Greece have already 
been revived, and whatever the course of the 
present war, and in spite of the senseless, dila- 
tory and fumbling tactics of the Allies, Greece 
will yet have Macedonia. The war in the Bal- 
kans is preparatory to the setting up once more 
but in more westward detail the kingdom of 
Lysimachus. The onrush to Bagdad and the 
East will again put Babylon and the Euphratean 
valley on the map for daily study. 

Then will arise the Devil's man, the man 
whom God has ordained shall be the Devil's 
long sought for incarnation and through whom 
he will make his final and desperate effort to 
capture and rule the world for himself. 

This man will be thrown up by the red waves 
of war. 

He will come out of the East as a soldier of 
reputation, a conqueror. He will sweep every- 
thing before him. His course will be westward. 
He will be hailed with enthusiasm as the only 



568 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

man who can lay hold of the troublous and tur- 
bulent times and bring order out of chaos. The 
kings in convocation will elect him as their head 
and superior. He will take the title, ^^Prince of 
Rome/' and thus the old Roman Empire, the 
fourth great world power, will be revived under 
its last form as a tenfold kingdom, a confedera- 
tion of kings over which this prince shall rule 
king of kings and lord of lords. 

Already the promise of these things is in the 
air. 

The present Kaiser of Germany has said 
should he win he will restore the old Teutonic, 
Roman Empire with such glory as it never 
dreamed in its most resplendent days. With his 
sword he has said he will hew his way to Baby- 
lon, and from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf, 
from the English channel to the Dardanelles he 
will rule with the sceptre and the cross of iron. 

This prince who is to come will triumph over 
all who set themselves in array against him, till 
on every lip shall be the cry: 

"Who can make war with him?" 

Having overcome all enemies he will seek to 



^ 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 569 

establish peace. He aims to be known as the 
'^Prince of Peace." 

He will enter into league with the Pope and 
make the Roman Church a church of state. 

In order to secure his eastern possessions and 
defend Babylon; (Babylon will again be built. 
It is as the ruler and king of revived Babylon he 
will enter on his role as conqueror and march to 
the West) ; in order to secure the East from 
Russia and the confederacy of Asiatic nations of 
.which she will be the center and to form a bar- 
rier against the combined movement of Germany 
and Russia to Constantinople and Palestine, he 
will set up the Jewish state. By means of the 
navy one of the western kingdoms he will en- 
able the Jews in the uttermost parts of the earth 
to return to their own land. With the head of 
the Jewish state he will make a treaty of seven 
years. The Jews will hail him as a political 
Messiah; and since he will be a Jew many will 
be ready to receive him as actual Messiah. Hav- 
ing rejected the true Messiah when He came in 
His Father's name they yviH accept the false 
Messiah when he comes in his own name. He 



570 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

will rebuild their temple and accord to them 
their ancient rites and ceremonies. 

For three years and a half a deceived world 
will be lulled with the dream of peace. 

At the end of that time the prince will turn 
like a madman upon the Church in Rome and 
in concert with his kings overthrow it and hurl 
it from its place of privilege and power. With 
increasing madness he will turn upon the Jews, 
break his treaty with them and rage against them 
with a wickedness, a terror and brutality of per- 
secution such as they have never known in all 
the anguish of their history. 

It will be the hour of the Great Tribulation. 

For the sake of the elect among the Jews the 
Lord God will now send hardening judgments 
on this wild beast, king and kaiser, even as He 
did for the sake of Israel upon Pharaoh and 
Egypt. 

He will rain upon the nations hail and horri- 
ble tempest. From the eighth chapter of the 
Revelation to the nineteenth you have a record 
and picture of those judgments in which every 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 571 

word that records them seems to be written in 
brimstone and sulphur. 

Those of you who were in the northwest some 
years ago can remember how because of the 
drouth and the all enveloping heat, fire leaped 
out of the very air to consume everything before 
it. The very trees became so dry the moisture 
was so completely evaporated that in rubbing 
their branches together they emitted sparks that 
ignited the wilted and crisp leaves till whole 
forests were ablaze, each several tree like a hid- 
eous burning torch, or in the deep darkness of 
the night like an upright serpent flinging forth 
its forked tongue. 

The grass and the harvest will be burned up. 

The waters will be turned to the appearance 
of blood. The springs and fountains and rivers 
of water will become bitter as wormwood and 
gall. All living things will die therein. 

The sun and moon and stars will fail to give 
their full and perfect light. The stars shall fall 
as when a tree casts its untimely fruit. The un- 
bolted heavens shall be torn apart. The foun- 
tains of the deep shall be broken up. Tidal 



572 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

waves shall drown the land. Earthquakes shall 
rive the solid ground. Volcanoes shall vomit 
forth their fiery streams. Hail stones weighing 
hundreds of pounds shall fall until it would seem 
as though giants of wrath stationed on the bor- 
ders of heaven were storming the inhabitants of 
the earth to send them bruised and mangled to 
their painful death. 

There will be an invasion of lost spirits. 

There was a time when men believed in spir- 
its, in sprites, in denizens of an unseen world. 
Then men (as they thought) grew wiser. They 
believed henceforth only in what they could see 
or feel, in nothing beyond the length of their 
eyelashes or the tips of their fingers. To-day 
there is a revirement, a coming back. Men now 
talk of the sub-conscious mind, of telepathy, 
hypnotism, levitation and spiritism, communi- 
cation with the dead. One of the leading scien- 
tists of the world has published a book being 
read by thousands in which, seriously, he details 
his communications with the dead. The follow- 
ers of spiritism are to be numbered by millions 
and there are representative thinkers and stu- 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 573 

dents, men of large attainment and scholarship, 
who do not hesitate to believe in demons, in dis- 
embodied souls seeking in this, our day, to inter- 
penetrate and possess the bodies of the living. 

Of all the anguish in the universe nothing is 
so great as the anguish of disembodiment. The 
Christian soul does not suffer in disembodiment 
because that soul both by regeneration and the 
Holy Spirit is linked up to the body of a risen 
Christ, and Christ for the time being is the hous- 
ing of that soul in heaven ; but to the soul out of 
Christ, it is unspeakable agony. 

The proof of this is to be seen in the interview 
of our Lord Jesus Christ with the demon-pos- 
sessed man of Gadara. The man cried out, ''I 
beseech thee, torment me not." 

Luke, who gives the account, says this appeal 
was made because the Lord ^^had commanded the 
unclean spirit to come out of the man." It was 
a protest of the demon against disembodiment. 
This is further proved when the Lord asks the 
man his name. He answers, "legion," because 
many demons "were entered into him." As soon 
as the command was insisted upon the demons 



574 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

besought that they might not be sent into the 
deep. The word used for ''deep," signifies, not 
the waters of the lake (immaterial spirits could 
not be afraid of drowning) but hades, the unseen 
abode of disembodied, unrighteous souls. They 
cried out against going back to the abode of the 
disembodied. They plead for embodiment. 
They asked the Lord to let them go into the 
bodies of the swine feeding by the lake. Em- 
bodiment in beasts was better than being a naked 
soul. To the Christless soul disembodiment is 
hell. The one aim of such a soul is to get em- 
bodiment. This is proved and demonstrated in 
the story related by Matthew, of the unclean 
spirit that went out of a man, went back to the 
underworld, walked through it, could find no 
rest, then took seven other spirits more wicked 
than himself and returning with them, entered 
again into the man. 

Disembodiment is torment, embodiment the 
^i^earning desire of the lost. 

The Lord will permit the doors of the unseen 
abode to be flung wide open, and these lost spir- 
its will come forth in monstrous hordes to pos- 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 575 

sess and torment the bodies of men. Men shall 
seek for death, but will not be able to find it. 
For a season God will surrender the world to 
these lost spirits. 

It will be a time of terror and anguish. 

Everywhere there shall be heart failure, men's 
hearts failing them for fear, for looking after 
the things that are coming on the earth. 

But as in the days of Pharaoh instead of soft- 
ening, the plagues and judgments will only serve 
to harden the hearts of men. Wickedness will 
increase, murder, fornication, robberies, thefts, 
conspiracies of sin, of shame, of unbridled in- 
iquity will fill the earth. 

The Devil's man shall be completely possessed 
by him and do according to his Satanic will. 

Then will be reached the blasphemous 
climax. 

This Devil's man at the head of a chosen army 
will march to the East, to meet another army 
threatening him from the Euphrates: kings and 
armies from the "sunrise" land, "sunrise" kings 
and their people. He will halt and form his 
army at the plain of Esdraelon or Harmageddon. 



576 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

Here he will be reinforced; for Harmageddon 
is the "gathering" place of his final strength. 
From Harmageddon he will turn more south- 
ward and march swiftly upon Jerusalem, be- 
siege it, take it, put it through all the horrors of 
a city given up to lawless soldiery. He vnll set 
up his image as Roman emperor. He will seat 
himself in the temple and demand the tribute 
and payment of divine honors. 

He will proclaim himself as very God. 

His prime minister, an incarnate demon, a 
master of occult science, a very wizard with nat- 
ural and supernatural forces will cause fire to 
come down from the heavens at his command. 
He will make the image of the emperor to speak 
as with the breath of a living man. All who re- 
fuse to do homage to the image shall be put to 
death. It will be a time of woe and suffering no 
tongue nor pen can describe. No one shall dare 
to buy or sell unless he is wearing on his fore- 
head or his right hand, the mark or stamp of 
the Devil's man. 

Such lying signs and wonders will this pri- 
mate of the king perform, and so completely 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 577 

will he proclaim these miracles as due to the 
power of the king, so insistently will he exalt 
him as God of gods and show him forth as such, 
that the very elect are in peril of being deceived. 

It is the hour when the Devil will seem to 
have triumphed; when all the world is at last 
at his feet; when he reigns supreme and with- 
out dispute. 

It is the hour for which he has longed and 
wrought. 

Such are some of the characteristics of the 
Great Tribulation coming on the earth. 

Ill, The Dramatic Ending of the Great 
Tribulation. 

It will end by the Coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ in glory. 

He will come with ten thousand times ten 
thousands of His saints. 

Again and again I have described that Com- 
ing. 

I have no more vocabulary. 

I have exhausted speech. 

He will come to the Mount of Olives, 



578 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

It is impossible not to recall that last night 
when He went into the garden there. 

He had come out from the Paschal Supper. 

With His heavy-hearted disciples He went 
through the streets of the almost deserted city, 
crossed the brook Kedron and went up the slopes 
of the Mount to the garden entrance. He bade 
Peter and James and John remain at the gate 
and watch while He went farther in amid the 
leafy solitude to pray. The moonlight fell in 
silently soft and silver waves amid the shadows 
and broke like shafts of splintered light against 
the trunks of gnarled and century-old trees. The 
silence was broken only by the voice of His 
prayer and the distant murmur of the brook as 
it babbled on its tortuous and rocky way to the 
solemn and prophetic vale below. 

Out of the night and the silence comes His 
pleading prayer: 

^Tather, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me! Nevertheless, not as I will, but as 
thou wilt/' 

Think of His agony! 

Think of His cup! 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 579 

Think of what He saw in that cup ! A world's 
sin, a world's iniquities. The hiding of the Fa- 
ther's face, Himself made sin, treated and pun- 
ished as sin, as the criminal of the universe. 
The enduring of God's wrath in your place and 
mine. Think of it! 

Why try to think of it? You cannot imagine 
it. You cannot picture it. It meant hell as only 
those will know and experience it who refuse 
to own Him now. 

He shrank from it. His soul's purity and hol- 
iness revolted at the stain and horror of it. The 
horror even of imputed sin. 

He had a right to refuse to drink this cup. 

He had right to refuse if He considered only 
Himself, only His own will. 

Had He considered Himself and exercised 
His own will. He would have failed the Father, 
He would have failed you and me. 

Then, alas, we would have known by actual 
experience what was in that cup. 

But He did not come to do His own will. 

That rails Him off from all others. 



SSo THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

That proves His humanity to be of different 
stuff from ours. 

That demonstrates His being and nature to 
be more than human. 

He comes to do the will of God the Father. 

That proves Him and the Father to be of one 
mind. 

It proves Him to be the Son of God and God 
the Son, the world's divine and consecrated Re- 
deemer. 

It was a night of nights, that last night on 
Olivet. 

But it will not be night on Olivet when He 
comes again. 

All the suns and systems like flaming glories 
will flash their concentrated splendor before 
Him and pale and fade away in the effulgence 
of His own unrestricted majesty. The moment 
His feet touch the mount it will split in twain 
and roll a wide uplifted plain for the feet of 
His saints. 

Then will He take this false king and his false 
prophet and bid them be cast into the valley of 
Hinnom. It will open like a gulf and into the 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 581 

upleaping fire they will be cast alive. Thus will 
end the Great Tribulation. As it ends the Lord 
as King of kings, as Potentate Supreme shall 
stand upon the threshold of that glorious king- 
dom unrolling a thousand golden years. 

IV, The Beginning of the Great Tribulation. 

The beginning, not of the actual Tribulation 
itself, but of the epoch in which it runs its course 
has three distinct steps. 

/. The Holy Ghost will be taken out of the 
world as the convicting and restraining power 
of evil. 

For one hundred and twenty years during the 
ministry of Noah the Spirit strove with men 
and held back the evil of the world. For two 
thousand years during this age of grace the 
spirit has been striving to lead men to faith in 
the Son of God, seeking to convict them of the 
sin of unbelief and using His infinite power to 
hold back and restrain iniquity. 

The only thing that keeps New York to night 
from utter riot and brutal lawlessness is the 
presence of the Holy Spirit, not only as an in- 
dwelling presence in the true Church of Christ, 



5^2 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

but as the energy which resists and breaks the 
conabination of evil forces, expanded evil sug- 
gestions and evil men. 

The Holy Spirit will be taken away. 

That is to say, He will personally depart as 
Slti official and restraining power. 

The world will be given over to the unhin- 
dered working of the Satanic spirit. 

But, the Holy Ghost dwells officially and per- 
sonally in the regenerated Church. He came to 
dwell in the Church corporately and individu- 
ally as a seal, sealing believers unto the day of 
redemption; until the hour when the dead in 
Christ shall be raised and the living changed. 
He is committed to remain the indwelling and 
guiding presence till the Lord comes into the 
air for the Church. 

In the nature of the case He cannot be taken 
away or separated from His official and essen- 
tial relationship to the Church. Since He can- 
not be separated from the Church, the taking 
away of the Spirit means the taking away, the 
translation of the Church. As the translation of 
the Church is at the Coming of the Lord, then at 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 5^3 

the Coming of the Lord for the Church the 
Holy Spirit will be taken away. 

That the Holy Spirit, as the restraining power 
of evil is to be taken out of the world at the 
close of the Church age is the plain teaching of 
Holy Scripture. 

The Apostle Paul says the Antichrist cannot 

be revealed till "he who now hindereth be 

taken out of the way." There is only one power 
can hinder and restrain Antichrist who is the 
culmination of evil, because that power is the 
only one that can restrain and hinder the devel- 
opment of evil which culminates in Antichrist, 
and that is the Holy Spirit. Antichrist is the 
beginning of the Tribulation, the Tribulation 
cannot begin till the Church is taken out of the 
way. This is the direct promise of the risen 
Lord Himself. He says to the regenerated 
Church in this time: "I also will keep thee from 
{out of) the hour of temptation (trial, affliction, 
tribulation), which shall come upon all the 
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." 
As the Tribulation cannot come till Antichrist 
is revealed and the Church is to be taken out of 



584 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

the way of the Tribulation, then Antichrist 
cannot be revealed till the Church is taken out 
of the way; as the Church and the Holy Spirit 
can not be separated then Antichrist cannot be 
revealed till the Holy Spirit is taken; and as 
the Holy Spirit is the alone restraining power 
of evil which culminates in Antichrist, then the 
Holy Spirit it is of whom the Apostle speaks 
when he says, "He who now letteth (hindereth) 
will let (hinder) until he be taken out of the 
way." 

Scripture therefore teaches that when the 
Lord comes into the air for His Church the Holy 
Spirit as the restraining power of evil will be 
taken out of the world. 

The Tribulation epoch will thus begin by the 
secret and Sudden Coming of the Lord for His 
Church and the removal of the Holy Spirit. 

2, The Devil's man, the great and final 
Kaiser will make a covenant with the Jews in 
Palestine for seven years. 

Daniel tells us the "Prince that shall come" 
will "confirm a covenant with many for one 
week." The word "week" here used is the He- 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 585 

brew for a period of seven. The context shows 
the period to be one of years. The week means 
a period of seven years. 

As already stated the Jews will receive this 
"prince" as their political Messiah; others, be- 
cause of his claims and apparent miracles as the 
actual Messiah. 

It is this action of the Jews in relation to the 
Prince that shall bring the judgments of God 
upon them nationally; and it is this action of the 
Prince as the head of the Gentile nations that 
shall bring the judgments of God upon them, 
driving them forward as agents to the blas- 
phemous climax of the imitation king of kings, 

J. At the end of three years and a half, 
spoken of in Scripture as a ^Uime, times and a 
half!* ^s '^forty-two months'' {lunar months) 
and as ^Uwelve hundred and sixty days/' the 
King will break his treaty with the Jews. 

This will be the actual beginning of the Trib- 
ulation. 

It will last for three years and a half. 

For three years and a half it will be hell on 
earth. 



586 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

It will fulfil the solemn and prophetic words 
of the Son of God, 

^'For then shall be the tribulation, the great 
one, such as was not since the beginning of the 
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." 

The Coming of the Lord into the air for the 
Church might be at any moment. 

That coming will be the sounding of the *'last 
trump" of Corinthians, and the "trump of God" 
of Thessalonians. 

There is not the thickness of the thin vapor 
that rises above the morning hills between us 
and the sounding of the trump. 

Any moment we may be gone and the prelude 
to the Tribulation begin. 

Because we are thus always on the threshold 
of the Tribulation I have three things to say to 
you: 

I. // is an absolute crime to go out and de- 
ceive people with the talk about peace; to tell 
them there will be no conflict between capital 
and labor; that nation will not war against 
nation; that through the preaching of the Gos- 
pel and the evolution of national and social 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 587 

righteousness peace, wide, universal and abid- 
ing peace, is coming. 

Again and again we hear the familiar quota- 
tion about swords beaten into ploughshares and 
spears into pruning hooks; but no one seems to 
realize that the prophet Joel tells us before that 
time can come the ploughshares must be beaten 
into swords and the pruning hooks into spears. 

In other words war, war universal, war en- 
gaging and devastating all nations must come be- 
fore peace; that the only threshold over which 
the nations can cross into peace is war — war, 
bloody, fearful, full of slaughter and anguish. 
Hear what the prophet says : 

^Troclaim ye this among the Gentiles; pre- 
pare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the 
men of war draw near; let them come up; 

^^Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your 
pruning hooks into spears/^ 

Hear what Jeremiah says: 

''The slain of the Lord shall be at that day 
from one end of the earth even unto the other 
end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, 



588 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

neither gathered, nor buried ; they shall be dung 
upon the ground." 

Hear what the Son of God says in that last 
address upon the Mount of Olives: 

'^Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars 

For nation shall rise against nation and 

kingdom against kingdom." 

Hear what Paul says : 

'When they shall say, Peace and safety; then 
sudden destruction cometh upon them ; as trav- 
ail upon a woman with child; and they shall 
not escape." 

Hear what James says: 

"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for 

your miseries that shall come upon you 

Ye have heaped treasures together for the last 
daysr 

Hear what John says: 

He says, in the closing hours of this age, 
wicked spirits will "go forth unto the kings 
of the earth and of the whole world, to gather 
them to the battle of that great day of God Al- 
mighty." 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 589 

Hear again what the Son of God says. He 
says: 

There shall come Tribulation such as the 
world never saw, distress with perplexity of na- 
tions, famine (world-wide famine), pestilence, 
earthquake, the going forth of false Christs, the 
multiplication of lawlessness, the falling away 
from God, the utter apostasy from righteousness, 
every man's heart failing him for fear — fear 
everywhere — at home and abroad, in the family 
and in the mart, in the palace and the cot, in the 
town and in the hamlet — fear, fear for looking 
after the things that are coming on the earth; 
war, confusion, conflict, Satanic triumph, peace 
utterly taken from the earth. 

Talk about peace in the face of all this warn- 
ing! 

Talk about any legislation, any movement, any 
organized effort on the part of men to set up a 
peace which shall deny and make void these sol- 
emn warnings ! 

To so talk and so preach is to deceive the peo- 
ple. 

There are three classes who are talking about 



590 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

peace : Men who utterly ignore the fact that the 
basic force in man, his capital, his asset, is self- 
interest, self will. 

Take self-interest out of men and you will 
stop every wheel and every machine in every 
manufactory on Manhattan island to-day. Self- 
interest, self-consciousness, the consciousness of 
self's power and the determination to put the 
individual self first and to the front is the in- 
spiration in man for all his achievements. Not 
until men are absolutely and universally regen- 
erated, made all over, filled and crowned with 
the love of God and the unselfishness of God's 
Christ, made into a new and distinct race, can 
the law of self and self's interest be set aside. 
And till it is, the antagonistic interests, the com- 
plex and contradictory plans, man with and 
against man will produce warring forces and 
always increasing conflict. 

Another class who talk about the steady evolu- 
tion and progress toward peace are those who 
are ignorant of God's mind and will. Because 
of their total ignorance they cannot come into 
court, their testimony is of no avail. It is waste 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 59 ^ 

of time, even, to listen to their propositions and 
amiable chatterings about peace. 

The third class are men who stand in the pul- 
pit and with an open Bible before them and 
statements as plain as the shining of Jupiter or 
Mars on a clear night, — statements that foretell 
war and sorrow and tribulation; statements 
which picture a world filled with anguish and 
torment and tragedy, — these men dare to stand 
up and talk about peace, about the purple and 
the gold of millennial days just at hand; who 
cry "peace," "peace," when there is no peace. 

Hear I pray you what the Word of God says 
about those who in this hour and in face of this 
warning talk about peace; who seek to lull the 
world to sleep on the threshold of the coming 
conflict. 

"The ambassadors of peace shall weep bit- 
terly 

"Saying peace, when there is no peace 

"Destruction cometh, and they shall seek 
peace, and there shall be none " 

"They have deceived my people, saying peace 
when there was no peace " 



592 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

^'The prophets which see visions of peace, and 
there is no peace, saith the Lord." 

It is because of this talk about peace, this re- 
pudiation of the warning of God that Scripture 
tells us the Tribulation and sorrow will come 
like a snare upon all those who dwell upon the 
face of the earth. It will come upon them un- 
awares and they will be as those taken in a gin 
and trap. 

I warn you that dire and terrible times are 
coming on the world; and that there can be no 
real, no abiding peace upon this sin-cursed earth 
till the Prince of Peace Himself shall come ; till 
He who is King of kings and Lord of lords shall 
come to put down all authority, all principali- 
ties and powers, all unrighteousness and evil, 
bind the Devil beneath His feet and reign and 
rule with a rod of iron, dashing in pieces as a 
potter's vessel all opposition, all who rebel 
against God and His way. He will establish a 
peace based on righteousness, the only founda- 
tion on which it can abide. 

2, It is time for those of you who profess to 



I 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 593 

be Christians to make your calling and election 
sure. 

There are two classes of professors in the 
Church. 

Those who profess the name of Christ and 
possess His life and nature; those who every 
day in one way or another manifest the truth and 
reality of this relationship. 

There are those who profess the name of 
Christ but give no evidence of possessing the 
life of Christ. 

To which of these classes do you as a profes- 
sed Christian belong? 

What is your estate? 

Are you indifferent to the House of God? 

Have you no joy in prayer? 

Do you scarcely ever read the Word of God, 
never search it and find little in it for profit, or 
peace or pleasure? 

Do you prefer worldly things, worldly ways 
and companionship to the things of God and the 
companionship of godly people? 

If these are your experimental characteristics 
and you still claim the name and make the open 



594 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

profession of Christ, still allow your name to re- 
main upon the Church book, then I call upon 
you to awake, arouse and find out whether you 
are deceiving yourself and your fellow man. 
Awake, arouse, I bid you; for, should the Son 
of God come before the morning you would have 
no time to get your scattered baggage together. 

Your name is on the Church book! 

Is it in the book of life? 

What a horror of horrors if, after having pro- 
fessed the name of Christ He should come and 
you be left, outside the door. 

O the a^ony of that moment when in spite of 
all your crying and beseeching appeal you should 
hear Him say: 

'^Depart from me, I never knew you." 

Now is the time to make your calling and 
election sure. 

You cannot elect yourself; but you can find 
out, and that very quickly, whether you have 
been elected; whether the root of the matter is 
in you; whether deep down in your heart you 
are sorry for all your carelessness and lack of 
consistent Christian living; whether really you 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 595 

wish to own and serve Him. You have no time 
to lose, and you ought not to let this night pass 
into the morning until you have found out and 
settled for yourself. If you really would get 
close to Him and enter into fellowship and com- 
munion, clutch that desire and do not let it go 
till your face is turned to Him and hands out- 
stretched. 

Do this and He will touch you with His power 
even here and now. 

Do not delay, you must arouse. 

J. The only place of security is in the Church 
of Christ. 

Listen! Do not make a mistake. I am not 
speaking of the mere outward, professing 
Church, but the true, the genuine, spiritual 
Church of Christ. 

The only way into this Church is by regener- 
ation. 

The only way of regeneration is through sin- 
cere and honest faith in Christ, the faith which 
claims Him as personal sacrifice, substitute, re- 
deemer, Lord and Master. He is the way, the 



59^ THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

truth and the life. He is the only door. By 
Him you may enter in and be saved. 

This is the time for decision. 

This is the time for taking sides. 

God is separating the wheat from the tares, 
and the tares from the wheat. 

Some exceedingly foolish and would be teach- 
ers pretend that the gathering out of the tares 
first represents the destruction of the wicked be- 
fore Christ comes for His own, and that there- 
fore the Church, the true Church, if it does not 
actually go through the Tribulation is at least 
greatly scorched by its fiery trials. You have 
only to go into the country and you will find 
the farmer is not foolish enough to burn up the 
briars, the weeds and thorns before he has 
reaped his wheat and gathered it into the barn. 
He may cull out the useless stuff, but he will put 
it aside in heaps and wait till the harvest is 
housed before he sends the burning flames to 
clean the refuse of the field. 

This word "to gather together" used by the 
Lord in the parable has in it the idea of organiz- 
ing, assembling, each after its own kind, separat- 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 597 

ing them till they stand out in their special and 
distinctive characters. The tares will be assem- 
bled, organized by themselves, and the wheat 
will by the very separation be made distinctive 
in itself. The Children of the Devil will more 
and more get together and organize, the Chil- 
dren of God will more and more get together 
and seek their own. 

This spirit of organization and separation is 
going on now. 

There never was a time in the history of the 
earth when so much organization was going on 
as to-day. Two men can hardly meet that they 
do not say, ''Let us get together; let us form a 
company, a club, a corporation, or a society. 

''Organize, get together." That is the watch- 
word. 

Some churches, following the common rule, 
have so organized, indeed, that as churches of 
Christ they have almost organized themselves 
out of existence. 

But it all has profound significance. 

It means God is calling on men and women to 
take their places. 



598 THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

He is calling on each individual to take sides. 

He says ''He that is not for me is against me." 

The hour of decision is here. 

The day of compromise has gone by. 

There is no such thing as neutrality. There 
is nothing in it except the profession and hypoc- 
risy of it. 

You must stand for something. 

I have preached many years in this Church. 

I have preached a long while to-night; but I 
am speaking to you from my heart and because 
the conviction and fulness of it bid me speak. 
There is only one thought that impresses me at 
this moment, you men and women, this great 
crowd of men who are here must either go 
through the gates of God and have eternal fel- 
lowship with Christ; or, you must go through 
the gates of hell into eternal woe. There is no 
more doubt about a hell to come than there is 
doubt about a hell here. There are men and 
women in New York who to-night are living in 
hell and enduring every moment the torments of 
the damned. 

If you have ever done anything wrong in the 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 599 

years gone by it is more of a hell to you to-night 
than it was then. You may wither with age, your 
body may be outwardly as a shrivelled mummy, 
but inside, in your consciousness, in every fold of 
your memory, deeper, more terrible, fresher than 
ever is the sin or failure of those years gone by. 
Your body will go, but this memory, this con- 
sciousness of your sin or sins and the sting and 
agony of the conscience will go on forever. The 
most terrible words which break on the ears in 
that hell whither the rich man went are these 
words which come across the bridgeless gulf : 

"Son — remember.^^ 

Men, you must meet God, and there is only 
one place where you can meet Him in security 
and that is underneath the blood of Christ. I 
should feel myself a traitor to God and man if 
I did not make an effort to reach you to-night. 
I want every unsaved man or woman to become 
a saved man or woman. There is no reason why 
you should not be saved to-night and now. God 
has done everything necessary to save you. 

The salvation is all provided in a risen and 
glorified Saviour. 



6oo THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

The issue of your salvation is all summed up 
in these questions : 

"Will you believe?" "Will you accept?" 
"Will you receive Jesus Christ now?" 

Do not say you cannot understand and there- 
fore cannot believe. 

You cannot understand, you certainly cannot 
realize how a flame of fire can leap five hundred 
thousand miles in height from the heart of the 
sun, but on the testimony of scientist astrono- 
mers you believe it. You cannot fully under- 
stand how it is when a child at the first uses its 
right hand it is the left brain and not the right 
which becomes the instrument of thought. You 
do not understand it but you believe it on testi- 
mony. There are a million things you cannot 
reason about, cannot fully understand when you 
do reason, yet they are facts, they impress them- 
selves on you as facts, you do not make any at- 
tempt to understand them, but you accept them. 
If you should refuse to believe or accept any- 
thing you could not explain or demonstrate or 
understand you would write yourself down a 
fool before you had gone ten steps in a world 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION 60 1 

whose mode and environment are both mystery 
and fact. 

men and women, with the shadow of eter- 
nity falling across you this night, you must hear 
me. 

1 tell you the days are coming when the door 
of grace will be shut. The day is coming, the 
hour, the moment, when your opportunity will 
be gone forever. 

I want you to hear, believe and be saved. 

Hear me as I repeat the wondrous message of 
God: 

''If thou shall confess with thy MOUTH the 
Lord Jesus, and shall BELIEVE IN THINE 
HEART that God hath raised him from the 
dead, thou shalt he saved/' 

I do not ask you to do things. 

I do not ask you to promise things; but, in 
face of the fact that every beat of your heart like 
a "muffled drum" is sounding your march to the 
parade ground of eternity; in face of the fact 
that the wisest, the best and the most intellectual 
of the earth are turning to and bowing down be- 
fore this Christ of God; in the face of, and by 



6o2 THE GR-EAT TRIBULATION 

the verification of a Christian consciousness 
two thousand years in extent, universal, all per- 
vading; in face of the indisputable fact that you 
have no guaranty of an hour or even a moment 
this side of eternity, I ask every man and wom- 
an among you, all who are willing and ready to 
accept Jesus Christ as a personal and present 
Saviour; all who will take God at His Word 
about Him; all who will step out on the promise 
of God concerning Him to do it now; do it for 
the sake of husband, wife, child, friend, and loved 
one, for the sake of your own soul. O man, O 
woman, young or old, if you will receive this 
risen Lord, this living and only Saviour, this 
Coming King, then I ask you to rise to your feet 
and by that act say, ^'I hereby accept and confess 
Him." 

Do that and the woe and anguish of the Great 
Tribulation and the endless judgment shall never 
fall on you. 



Note. — In an audience which crowded the auditorium and 
packed the galleries, and where men seemed to predominate in 
number, scarcely a half dozen remained seated. With marvelous 
spontaneity the people responded to the invitation and rose to 
their feet. 



v-fi 



IX 

THE FALLING STONE, OR THE OVERTHROW 
OF THE LAST KAISER 



I 



The Falling Stone 

or 

The Overthrow of the Last Kaiser. 



My theme to-night is : 

"The Falling Stone; or, God's forecast of 
world politics now being fulfilledj the over- 
throw of the Last Kaiser, or Caesar, and the set- 
ting up of the Fifth and final great world 
power." 

My text is to be found in the book of Daniel, 
second chapter, thirty- fourth, thirty-fifth and 
forty-fourth verses: 

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out 
without hands, which smote the image upon his 
feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them 

in pieces And the stone that smote the 

image became a great mountain, and filled the 

whole earth And in the days of these kings 

shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which 
ghall never be destroyed," 



6o6 THE FALLING STONE 

In the previous sermon I spoke on the ^'Great 
Tribulation." In presenting that subject I gave 
a general exposition of what is popularly known 
as ^'Daniel's image," together with corrobora- 
tive testimony of the wild beasts Daniel saw in 
his own visions. I shall go over exactly the same 
ground to-night. I shall, however, give a more 
detailed exposition of the image and the sym- 
bolry of the beasts, verifying all from history 
till I reach the prophetic climax of the fourth 
empire. I shall then expound the mountain out 
of which the stone was cut, the stone itself, the 
falling of the stone and the setting up of the 
fifth and final kingdom. From all this I shall 
draw the corollary that God's forecast of world 
politics is now being fulfilled and that these ful- 
filling events are the daily demonstrations that 
this Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible 
Word of God. I shall close as usual by an ap- 
peal to professed Christians and to those of you 
who may be unsaved. 

Nebuchadnezzar was King of Babylon. Bab- 
ylon, as a Kingdom, was in the zenith of its 
glory. It had been built on and out of the ruins 



1 



THE FALLING STONE 607 

of Assyria. It was so identified with it that 
classic writers like Herodotus and Strabo speak 
often of the Babylonians as Assyrians. The 
kingdom extended over Asia Minor, Syria, Pal- 
estine, Arabia, Egypt, part of Greece, the Af- 
rican littoral and Spain, as far as the pillars of 
Hercules. 

The City of Babylon was in the noontide of 
its splendor. 

The hanging gardens swept up, terrace on 
terrace of verdant foliage and playing fountains, 
to the palm fronded heights. The tower of 
Belus rose hundreds of feet higher than the pres- 
ent Tour Eiffel. It was ascended by an exterior 
spiral roadway. At the top was a sanctuary for 
worshippers and crowning it all, a statue of the 
god worth its weight in millions of gold. 

The walls of the city were three hundred feet 
in height, looking down upon a trench half as 
high, a trench that could be flooded from an ar- 
tificial lake operated by locks of modern con- 
struction. The walls were pierced by a hundred 
brazen gates. Behind each gate a thousand men 
stood armed and ready to spring forth at the 



6o8 THE FALLING STONE 

first sounding of alarm. On the top of the walls 
was an esplanade or boulevard where chariots 
three abreast could be driven without incom- 
moding one another. Bridges connected the flat 
roofed houses; so that there was an upper as 
well as lower city. In the lower city the streets 
crossed each other at right angles. They were 
paved and arcaded. The river Euphrates ran 
through the center of the city between marble 
banks or quays. Artistic bridges spanned the 
river, ferry boats glided back and forth, while 
here and there arched tunnels enabled the peo- 
ple to pass from side to side. In the heart of 
the city was the king's palace — eight miles 
square. 

The inhabitants were wholly given up to 
pleasure, to unbridled lust and drunkenness. 
Here virtue had no place and vice was crowned 
with flowers. 

In self satisfied pride and abounding content, 
Nebuchadnezzar ruled over this wide and 
wealth-filled kingdom. 

One night, in the depths of his luxurious sleep 
be dreamed a dream. When he awoke it had 



THE FALLING STONE 609 

gone from him. Although he could not recall 
a single outline of it the impression weighed 
upon and terrified him. He summoned his wise 
men and astrologers. He commanded them to 
recall the dream and give him the interpretation. 
They protested. No king had ever made such a 
demand. Let him tell them the dream, they 
would give the interpretation. Nebuchadnez- 
zar was filled with anger, with madness and fury 
that the absolutism of his will should be ques- 
tioned or arrested even for a moment. He com- 
manded them to be put to death. 

Among the Jewish captives Nebuchadnezzar 
had led in his triumphal train after the siege 
and taking of Jerusalem were four young men, 
princes in Israel, among whom Daniel, the 
prophet, was easily preeminent. With the three 
others he had been placed by the king in the col- 
lege of astrologers that they might become versed 
in the science, the knowledge and wisdom of the 
Chaldeans. The sentence included them. When 
Daniel heard of it he went to the Chamberlain 
and through him sought an interview with the 
king. It was accorded him. He presented him- 



6 10 THE FALLING STONE 

self before Nebuchadnezzar. He asked for a 
respite, giving assurance should it be granted he 
would tell the dream and give the interpretation. 
The petition was accorded him. Immediately, 
he called together his companions, with them 
held a prayer-meeting and insistently besought 
the living God that He would give the longed- 
for revelation. The Lord God met his faith, 
gave him both the dream and the interpretation. 
He went in to the king and spread them before 
him. 

This was the dream : 

Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image. 

Its head was of gold. Its breast and arms of 
silver. The belly and thighs were of brass. 
The legs were iron, but the feet and toes, part of 
iron and part of clay. 

There was a stone cut out of the mountain 
without hands. 

The stone fell and smote the image on the feet. 
It broke the image to pieces. The pieces became 
as the chaff of the summer's threshing floor 
when it is swept by the fanning and separating 
breezes of the western wind. 



THE FALLING STONE 6 1 1 

The stone became a great mountain and filled 
the whole earth. 

Speaking by the spirit of God Daniel says: 

''The dream is certain and the interpretation 
sure." 

And this is the interpretation as spoken to the 
king: 

"Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the 
God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, 
power, and strength and glory." 

In saying this Daniel was announcing not only 
that the head of gold symbolized the king, but, 
also, the kingdom, and that Babylon therefore 
was the first in the politico-prophetic series. At 
the same time, this direct gift of dominion and 
power from the hand of God was His official 
proclamation and authoritative affirmation of 
the "divine right of kings." 

The commission to Nebuchadnezzar was the 
transfer of world rulership to Gentile hands. 

It was the end of Jewish time. 

It was the beginning of Gentile time. 

God had purposed to rule the world govern- 
mentally through the elect and chosen nation of 



6l2 THE FALLING STONE 

Israel. He purposed to send His incarnate Son 
to be their king and through Him and them to 
administrate righteousness and truth in the earth, 
bringing benediction and blessing to every crea- 
ture. 

The nation had failed, grievously and utterly 
failed. 

They had sinned against light. 

Ten tribes had deliberately and from political 
motives gone into idolatry. 

God had punished them by sending the As- 
syrians to carry them into captivity. They still 
exist in their descendants, but, for twenty-five 
centuries all identification has been concealed. 
They are known as "the ten lost tribes." 

The other two tribes gave themselves up to 
moral rebellion against God and ended, like- 
wise, in idolatry. 

God again smote with the hand of judgment. 

He sent Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusa- 
lem, overthrow it and bring the people captive 
to his golden city. 

The hour in which Daniel was now speaking, 
a captive and forced into the role of an astrol- 



THE FALLING STONE ^13 

oger, was proof of the helplessness of the peo- 
ple, the seal of God's wrath and judgment 
against them as a nation. 

The transfer of national authority to the Gen- 
tiles waSk the climax of the judgment. 

Jewish time had come to an end. 

Gentile time had begun. 

Jerusalem was down. 

Babylon was up. 

Jerusalem was a political cypher. 

Babylon had become the political center. 

Babylon as the head of gold had become the 
first depository of divinely granted world power 
in the hand of the Gentiles. 

The breast and arms of silver symbolize the 
kingdom that should come after Babylon. 

If you would know that kingdom and know 
it from the pages of the Word without going 
into a library or needing to read history written 
by men ; if you wish to see it in a scenic and dra- 
matic revelation from God, open to the fifth 
chapter of this amazing and far-seeing book of 
Daniel. 



6 14 THE FALLING STONE 

The scene as recorded is in the City of Baby- 
lon. 

The era is the reign of Belshazzar, grandson 
of Nebuchadnezzar. 

The time, night. The particular location, the 
banqueting hall of the king's palace. All that 
the lavish wealth of a king's inexhaustible treas- 
ury; all that the genius of Babylonian craftsmen 
and the skill of Babylonian artists could do had 
been done to make this banqueting hall a dream 
of wonder and an appeal of beauty. The ceiling 
was made to imitate the star-fretted sky of night, 
concealed lights flashing through gold and silver 
centers as from very stars themselves. The walls 
were paneled and filled with frescoed forms and 
scenes that told the license of the hour. The 
floor was a mosaic of marbled colors. In the 
center were great tables loaded with gold and 
silver vessels and groaning with the profuse pro- 
visions for the feast. Fountains tossed up and 
down their streams of crystal music. From hid- 
den openings in the walls sweet perfumes were 
sprayed upon the guests. Dancing girls with 
tinkling silver bells on arm and ankle, posturing 



THE FALLING STONE 615 

in lithesome, thinly veiled bodies filled the air 
with the tintinabulations of their rhythmic mov- 
ing feet. Long couches were drawn to the tables 
that the revellers might recline and eavt and 
drink at ease. 

Belshazzar had invited a thousand of his 
lords, their wives, concubines and mistresses, the 
most dissolute of all women in a city where every 
woman to be a woman must be unchaste and 
dissolute. 

They gave themselves up to the riot of pleas- 
ure, to the freedom of indescribable debauch. 

In the midst of the orgy in which each was 
bound in honor of the god whose feast they cele- 
brated to become beastly and wantonly drunk, 
Belshazzar bethought him of the golden vessels 
taken by his grandfather from the temple in Je- 
rusalem. He commanded them to be brought. 
They filled them with wine. Lifting them high 
they drunk and gave praises to the gods of gold, 
of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and stone. 

Suddenly, when the saturnalia was at its 
worst, most sensual, most godless and blas- 
phemous pitch, a hand without a sleeve was 



6i6 THE FALLING STONE 

thrust forth and began to write on the plaster of 
the wall. 

In a moment the drunken crowd was hushed 
and sobered. 

Strange were the characters the fingers so 
swiftly wrote and then vanished, leaving them 
there to smite with terror the frightened, rolling 
eyes which could not decipher them. 

The king sent for his wise men and astrol- 
ogers. 

He offered wealth and rulership in the king- 
dom to whomsoever among them could read and 
make plain the writing. 

None could read it. 

Then the queen suggested that Daniel was In 
the city. He had been an interpreter to the 
king's grandfather. Nebuchadnezzar had ex- 
alted and honored him. He had in him the 
spirit of the holy gods ; let them send for him. 

Daniel was sought for, found and brought in. 

The king offered him the bribe of wealth, of 
high honor and rulership in the kingdom. 

Daniel bade the king keep his gifts, give his 
bribes to another. He would speak as an am- 



THE FALLING STONE 617 

bassador of God. He would tell the truth with- 
out fear or favor. 

He said: 

''Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy re- 
wards to another; yet I will read the writing 
unto the king, and make known unto him the 
interpretation." 

The words were: 

"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." 

And this was the interpretation: 

"Mene: God hath numbered thy kingdom 
and finished it. 

"Tekel: Thou art weighed in the balances, 
and art found wanting. 

"Peres: Thy Kingdom is divided, and given 
to the Medes and Persians/' 

Scarcely had he gone and the sounds of his 
footsteps died away when there was the tramp 
of marching feet, the quick word of command, 
the flash of gleaming spears, the shouts of vic- 
tory and the Persians swept into the hall. 

Belshazzar was slain and Darius the Median, 
under the command of Cyru^, took the kingdom. 

Thus Medo-Persia was the second kingdom. 



6i8 THE FALLING STONE 

the kingdom therefore symbolized by the breast 
and arms of silver; even as Daniel had foretold: 
"After thee (after the head of gold) there shall 
arise another kingdom inferior to thee" (in- 
ferior as silver is to gold). 

The third metal in the image and the third 
portion of it, the belly and thighs of brass rep- 
resented a third kingdom, the kingdom which, 
necessarily, should come after Medo-Persia ; for, 
Daniel said: 

"And another third kingdom of brass." 

To find this third and brazen kingdom I shall 
ask you to turn to the eighth chapter of this book 
of Daniel and find there the record of a vision 
given to Daniel himself. 

In this vision he saw a ram pushing westward 
and northward and southward. It had two 
horns, but one higher than the other. Then a 
he-goat came from the west. It had a notable 
horn between its eyes. It rushed upon the ram 
where it had taken its stand on the banks of a 
river, overthrew it and stamped on it. The goat 
waxed exceeding great; but in the moment of 



THE FALLING STONE 619 

its greatness the notable horn was broken and 
in its stead came up four others. 

The angel Gabriel came to Daniel and gave 
him the interpretation of the vision: 

The ram with the two horns, he said, repre- 
sented the kings of Media and Persia (that is to 
say the Medo-Persian kingdom) the rough goat 
symbolized Greece, the notable horn between its 
eyes the first king. The breaking off of the 
notable horn was the sudden end that should 
come to the first king. The four horns coming 
up in place of it — four kings or kingdoms that 
then should arise as a consequence of the 
abrupt ending of the first king of Greece. 

Let us take up the page of history and read it 
in the light and interpretation of this vision. 

The Persian Kingdom, like the ram, pushed 
its conquering arms northward and southward 
and then westward. Then appeared Alexander 
of Macedon. At the head of his Greeks he 
crossed over into Asia Minor. He swept on to 
the river Granicus. The Persian host were 
drawn up in battle array on the other side. Alex- 
ander committed a tactical fault. He made a 



620 THE FALLING STONE 

frontal attack on a superior enemy behind a 
river. Nevertheless, with his troops he plunged 
in. In spite of the scythed chariots and the heavy 
cavalry of the foe he out-generalled, out-flanked, 
and defeated him. He rushed on to Issus, 
smashed into fragments the army of six hundred 
thousand men Darius had opposed to him. A 
year and a half later after having subjugated 
Syria, Palestine and Egypt he marched against 
the million of men Darius had recruited from 
more than twenty nations and with the might 
and wisdom and scintillating splendor of incom- 
parable military genius overthrew the Persians 
and brought to an end the second great Gentile 
world power. He entered Babylon, advanced 
to the rivers of India and because his troops 
would go no further returned, enthroned him- 
self in the licentious city and died suddenly as 
the consequence of a drunken debauch. 

His four great generals took his kingdom and 
divided it among themselves. 

I shall speak of these kingdoms presently. 

Since the rough he-goat overthrowing the 
ram is Greece; since the ram is the symbol of 



THE FALLING STONE 621 

Medo-Persia and Medo-Persia is the second 
kingdom, and is represented in the image by 
silver, then Greece is the third kingdom and is 
represented in the image by brass — the metal 
that comes after the silver. 

Previously to the vision of the ram and the 
he-goat Daniel had a vision of four wild beasts 
coming up out of the Mediterranean Sea. 

The record of this vision is to be found in the 
seventh chapter. 

The first beast was like a lion, with the wings 
of an eagle. 

The second was a bear. It had three ribs be- 
tween its teeth ; and a voice bade it arouse and 
devour much flesh. 

The third beast was a leopard. It had four 
wings of a fowl. 

The fourth beast was a monster with great 
iron teeth and ten horns. 

The angel tells Daniel the fourth beast is the 
fourth kingdom or world power on earth. 

As this fourth beast is declared to be the sym- 
bol of a kingdom, it follows that the other three 
are also symbols of kingdoms. 



;622 THE FALLING STONE 

The four wild beasts therefore represent four 
kingdoms or four world empires. 

And I would have you notice and let it sink 
deep in your minds as the picture which God 
Himself forewarningly gives that these are 
Wild Beasts and set forth the character of gov- 
ernment in the closing hours of this age; not 
lamb-like governments, NOT GOVERNMENTS OF 
PEACE, but wild-beast governments; govern- 
ments which, like wild beasts, will slay and tear 
and ravage and glut themselves with blood and 
prey. 

Since the four parts of the image, the gold, 
the silver, the brass and the iron represent four 
great Gentile world powers, it is evident that the 
four wild beasts also representing four great 
world powers are the corroborating symbols of 
the same kingdoms. 

The lion with eagle's wings is the first beast, 
is the first of the four gentile kingdoms, coordi- 
nates by position the head of gold in the image 
and is therefore, necessarily, the symbol of the 
kingdom of Babylon. 



THE FALLING STONE 623 

There are thus three symbols of that king- 
dom : 

The golden head. 

The lion. 

The lion with eagle's wings. 

Turn to the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah and 
you will find Babylon there described as a 
"golden" city. 

"Thou shalt take up this proverb against the 
king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppres- 
sor ceased! The golden city ceased!" 

The prophet Jeremiah writes: 

"Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord's 
hand." (Jeremiah 51 : 7.) 

In the fourth chapter of his prophecy he 
speaks of evil coming upon Judah from the 
north. The "north" is characteristically in 
Scripture applied to Babylon; as it is written: 

"I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar 
(Nebuchadnezzar) king of Babylon, a king of 
kings from the north/' 

The "evil" then of which Jeremiah warns is 
the king of Babylon and Babylon as a power of 



624 THE FALLING STONE 

evil. He speaks of this evil as the ^^lion that is 
come up from his thicket." (Jeremiah 4: 6, 7.) 

Thus the lion is a symbol of Babylon. 

The eagle is a symbol of Babylon; as it is 
w^ritten : 

"I raise up the Chaldeans (the Babylonians) 
they shall fly as the eagle." (Habakkuk 

1:6,8.) 

If ever the opportunity shall come to you to 
visit the British Museum in London, or the 
Louvre in Paris you will see the winged lions in 
stone that once guarded the doors of the palace 
in Babylon; and down there by the Birs Nim- 
roud, in the ruins of the golden city they have 
found a porcelain plaque on which Nebuchad- 
nezzar caused to be stamped the figure of lions. 

Thus history affirms Babylon to be the first of 
the four Gentile world powers. 

The second beast was a hear, and as it symbol- 
izes the second kingdom coordinates the second 
part of the image, the breast and arms of silver. 

We have seen this part of the image to be the 
symbol of Medo-Persia, the kingdorn which 
comes after Babylon. 



THE FALLING STONE 625 

Medo-Persia therefore has three symbols. 

The silver breast and arms of the statue. 

The devouring bear. 

The ram with the long and short horns that 
was overcome by the he goat. 

Turn again to the page of history. 

You will find the '^Immortal Guard'' of Per- 
sia wore silver corslets or cuirass. 

Read history and you will find the Medes 
and Persians and specially the Medes were as 
cruel and devouring in their slaughter as a wild 
and voracious bear. 

As you pursue your reading you will learn 
that the king of Persia rode at the head of his 
army wearing a ram's head made of gold and set 
with sparkling jewels: and if to-morrow you 
could go to Persepolis you would see sculptured 
on the pillars still standing there the figure of 
a ram's head, one horn longer than the other. 

Thus history affirms Medo-Persia to be the 
second prophetic kingdom. 

The third beast is a leopard with wings. It is 
the symbol of the third kingdom. It coordi- 
nates the third part of the image, the belly and 



626 THE FALLING STONE 

thighs of brass. As this third and brazen part 
sets forth the kingdom that should come after 
the second part, after the silver, after Medo- 
Persia, and in Daniel's vision of the ram and he 
goat, Greece overcomes Medo-Persia, then 
Greece is the third kingdom. 

Greece has three symbols. 

The brass or brazen part of the image. 

The winged leopard. 

The he goat. 

When classic writers speak of the Grecian 
army, they use such words as these : 

Chalkachitones achaioi. 

That is, '^Brazen coated Greeks.^' 

The leopard is a small animal, but strong, 
quick in action and exceedingly swift. 

The four wings give quadruple power and as 
a symbol signify extraordinary speed. 

Alexander, like Napoleon, was small, and like 
him, capable of great endurance. The distinc- 
tive feature of his strategy was the swiftness of 
his march. He so led his army that the para- 
sangs or miles seemed to flee beneath their feet. 

But now note the wonder of corroboration. 



THE FALLING STONE 627 

When, according to Justin, Caranus, the 
founder or first king of Macedonia was seeking 
with a great company of Greeks a new habita- 
tion, the oracle they consulted bade them follow 
a herd of goats. A storm broke out. They saw 
a herd of wild goats trying to escape from the 
windy tempest. The people followed them. 
They were led to the town of Edessa. The king 
made it his capital. He called it JEgx "the 
goat's town." The people were thenceforth 
known as iEgaedoe, "the goat's people." 

Alexander of Macedon himself named his son 
Mgus, the "son of a goat." 

When Pyrrhus, king of Epirus (that Pyrrhus 
of whom Hannibal is reported to have said of all 
generals he was the first) put on his helmet hav- 
ing goat's horns for a crest he did more to con- 
quer the Macedonians than by all his splendid 
feat of arms; when they saw it they broke forth 
into wild acclaim, recognizing it as the symbol 
of their land. 

But now, I bid you take up your map, look at 
the waters of the Mediterranean as they roll be- 
tween Greece and Asia Minor and it will be 



628 THE FALLING STONE 

seen the name of the Grecian Archipelago is the 
Mgean Sea, and that means the Goat Sea, the sea 
of the goat. 

Thus history testifies that Greece is the third 
great world power. 

The fourth beast is a monster with great iron 
teeth and ten horns. 

The angel tells Daniel this is the fourth king- 
dom upon earth; 

It corresponds with the fourth part of the im- 
age. 

The fourth part of the image consists of the 
two legs of iron and the ten toes, part of iron and 
part of clay. 

To find the fourth kingdom or empire as 
thus doubly symbolized without going to a ref- 
erence library, and to find it in the Bible, turn 
to the New Testament. 

There we learn our Lord Jesus Christ was 
born, not only under the shining stars and the 
angel song, but under and during the reign of 
Augustus Caesar emperor of Rome; and that he 
was put to death under Tiberias Caesar of Rome; 



THE FALLING STONE 629 

that Rome was the great world power, the power 
that succeeded Greece. 

The characteristic element of the fourth part 
of the statue is: 

Iron. 

In the fourth beast the teeth are iron teeth. 

As school boys and school girls we read of the 
^^iron legions of Rome." 

The fourth empire, Rome, included all the 
territory of the three preceding kingdoms, 
Greece, Medo-Persia and Babylon, 

For a moment, let us go back to the vision of 
the goat, to the four horns that came up when 
the great and notable horn was broken. 

These four were Alexander's generals: Se- 
leucus, Ptolemy, Cassander and Lysimachus. 

Seleucus took Babylon, Persia, Syria and Pal- 
estine. 

Ptolemy had Egypt, 

Cassander received Greece and Macedonia. 

Lysimachus possessed the countries now occu- 
pied by Roumania, Thrace and Asia Minor as 
far as the Taurus Mountains. 



630 THE FALLING STONE 

Then Rome began to expand. 

The fragments of the Grecian empire were 
conquered one after another and incorporated. 
The victorious eagles flew west and east Under 
Trajan Rome ruled from the Scottish hills, from 
Britain and the Pillars of Hercules to the Eu- 
phrates and the Persian plains ; from the Rhine 
and the Danubian Solitudes to Africa and the 
glittering sands of Sahara, and thus included 
under her far-reaching and iron sceptre the 
world kingdoms that in turn had ruled before 
her. 

We go back to the fourth part of the statue 
and find it consisting of the two legs of iron, the 
feet and the ten toes. 

We discover, at the same time, that the fourth 
beast has ten horns and that these ten horns are 
said by the angel to be ten kings. 

As the fourth beast coordinates the fourth 
part of the image then the ten toes are equiva- 
lent to the ten kings. This is confirmed by Dan- 
iel, who after speaking of the toes, refers to them 
again and uses the words "in the days of these 
kings." 



THE FALLING STONE 63 1 

These kings or kingdoms are to be partly 
strong and partly broken. 

The iron is the element that is strong. 

Clay is the element that is weak. 

Iron is the symbol of monarchy. 

Clay as I have shown you in a previous ser- 
mon is the symbol of the rule of the people — de- 
mocracy. 

Monarchy and democracy cannot unite, or re- 
main united in any one form of government. 

Such a government must be partly strong and 
partly broken. 

The breaking, separation and fragmentation 
are found in the clay, in the rule of the people, 
in democracy. 

There are three things therefore to be consid- 
ered in this fourth part of the image : 

The two legs. 

The ten toes. 

The mixed condition of iron and clay. 

The two legs symbolize the division of the 
fourth, or Roman empire, into two equal parts. 

The ten toes signify a second and final divi- 
sion into ten kingdoms. 



632 THE FALLING STONE 

The mixture of iron and clay in the ten toes is 
a symbolic prophecy that these ten kings — (since 
clay is the last in order) will be elected by the 
people and will be democratic kings. 

Let us turn to history. 

A thousand years after the prophecy Rome 
was divided into two great halves under the 
brothers Valentinian and Valens. The Western 
Empire had its capital at Rome. Constantino- 
ple or Byzantium became the capital of the East- 
ern Empire. 

The Western Empire continued some four 
hundred years after Christ and then began to 
break up under the incursion of Teutonic hordes 
into smaller states. 

The Eastern Empire with varying fortunes 
lasted till 1453, when it was taken by the Turks. 
The Turkish Empire has held it intact to the 
Persian boundaries till within the last few years 
and specially within the last decade. Like its 
own eastern boundary river which according to 
prophecy is to be dried up, it has dwindled in 
extent until to-day only a relatively small por- 
tion of territory surrounding Constantinople is 



THE FALLING STONE 633 

under the rule of the crescent and the power of 
its scimetar. 

On Christmas day, 800, the great basilica of 
Saint Peter's in Rome, was filled with a wor- 
shipping throng. 

Pope Leo Third came down from his pontifi- 
cal chair to the high altar before which Charle- 
magne, the king of the Franks, was kneeling, 
and placing on his head a golden and splendid 
crown, saluted him and proclaimed him — Em- 
peror of Rome. Thus was the Western Empire 
revived and through succeeding centuries recog- 
nized as the "Holy Roman Empire." 

It attempted to influence and control the East- 
ern Empire. Through war, internal convulsion 
and intrigue it became more Teutonic than 
Latin, more German than Roman and finally 
degenerated into a heterogeneous company of 
petty German, or German-controlled states. 
Eventually the emperor of Austria under pres- 
sure took over the title of Caesar, Emperor of 
Rome. A double-headed eagle became his en- 
sign. It was the shadow of the claim that as this 
monster in spite of two heads had one body, so 



634 THE FALLING STONE 

Rome even though divided remained one em- 
pire. It was the mystical affirmation that what- 
ever divisions might come in the territory occu- 
pied by it, Rome as the fourth and final ordained 
world power, would continue as such till the 
end of Gentile time. 

This ensign is still borne on the banners of 
Austria. It is, also, the ensign of Russia, which, 
in the intimacy and secrecy of imperial plans and 
councils, believes itself to be the legitimate heir 
and rightful possessor of the one time Eastern 
(and really, Greek) Empire; believes Constan- 
tinople, or Byzantium (and neither Petrograd 
nor Moscow) to be its genuine capital and the 
true metropolitan center of the Greek Church. 
This mysterious ensign is now borne aloft and 
thrust into the eyes of a startled world as the 
blazon of Germany, whose feudal war lord and 
Kaiser aims to be the Caesar of a revived Teu- 
tonic Roman Empire; for, this word Czar in 
Russia, and Kaiser in Germany is the fatefulj 
old-time and abiding title — Caesar. 

The Holy Roman Empire degenerated into 
such a political condition that the satirical Vol- 



THE FALLING STONE 63^ 

taire wittily said of it, that it was "neither holy, 
nor Roman, nor an empire." 

Then Napoleon arose and burst over Europe 
like a cyclone, smashed Austria, and made a 
peace in which emperors played second parts. 
The emperor of Austria was forced to lay aside 
his title as Caesar of Rome. Napoleon set up 
the Confederation of the Rhine. He unmade 
and made kings at his will. He took the thrones 
of nations and gave them to whom he willed. 
He purposed to establish a confederation of 
subordinate kings in which he should occupy 
the position of a king of kings and lord of lords. 
He called the Jewish Sanhedrin together and 
planned to set up the Jewish state. He aimed to 
take over Syria, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, 
dreamed of Babylon and the East. He drew up 
plans for the conquest of England and had as- 
sembled his troops on the shores of the English 
Channel. He had placed on his head with his 
own hands the crown of Charlemagne. He 
openly affirmed that he was the true heir of that 
Prankish king. Had he realized his ambition he 
would have restored the Roman Empire as a 



Gi,6 THE FALLING STONE 

confederation of kings over which he would 
himself have reigned supreme as the master of 
the world. 

In all this he was throwing down the shadows 
of coming events; for, according to the proph- 
ecy of the image and the beasts the Rom^an Em- 
pire, or the territory once occupied by it, was 
after the first division to be divided a second and 
final time among a confederation of kings — ten 
in number {ten toes, ten horns). And as the 
toes were five on each foot, at the end of each 
iron leg, so these ten kings would be apportioned 
— five in each of the first great political divisions 
— five in Western and five in the Eastern Em- 
pire; that is, in the territory distinctively occu- 
pied by each division. 

No such tenfold division has ever taken place. 

It does not exist to-day. 

It is, therefore, future. 
- Four of these kingdoms we know. They arc 
the four into which Alexander's kingdom was 
divided. 

Babylon with Persia, Syria and Palestine. 

Egypt — with the African Littoral. 



THE FALLING STONE 637 

Greece with Macedonia. 

The Balkans, that portion covered by Thrace, 
Bythinia, Asia Minor to the Taurus. 

These kingdoms (the entire ten) will be 
brought about in their final state by the action of 
the people; but because of the mixture of mon- 
archy and democracy, it will be a state of inco- 
hesion and weakness. 

Daniel tells us that among the ten horns of the 
fourth beast a little horn arose before whom 
three horns were plucked up. This little horn 
therefore is an eleventh horn, and according to 
the symbol, an eleventh king. 

If you will now turn to the thirteenth chapter 
of the Revelation you will find there the descrip- 
tion of a composite beast. 

It is like a leopard. It has the feet of a bear 
and the mouth of a lion. 

It has ten horns. 

The lion is the symbol of Babylon, the bear of 
Medo-Persia and the leopard of Greece. 

The ten horns are the ten kings. 

This is the picture of a kingdom which in- 



638 THE FALLING STONE 

eludes Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece, and 
is, therefore, the fourth or Roman Empire, 

The ten kings are a declaration that it is the 
Roman Empire in its final tenfold division. 

The beast, consisting of these distinct national 
characteristics, carrying and therefore control- 
ling the coming and the going of the horns or 
kings is the symbol of a person whose sphere 
of action is the region of the fourth or Roman 
Empire, and who has power and authority over 
the ten kings. That he is a person is seen in the 
fifth verse where it is written that to this beast 
was given "a mouth speaking great things and 
blasphemies." 

As a person authoritatively superior to the 
ten kings this beast stands related to them as an 
eleventh king, or horn. He is therefore identi- 
cal with the little horn which rose among the 
ten as seen by Daniel. Thus the little horn and 
this beast of Revelation thirteenth set forth a su- 
preme king, the head and chief of the ten kings. 
This conclusion is corroborated, made definite 
and clear in the seventeenth chapter of the Rev- 



THE FALLING STONE 639 

elation, the twelfth and thirteenth verses, where 
it is written : 

"The ten horns which thou sawest are ten 
kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; 
but receive power as kings one hour (or, liter- 
ally, ^at the same time'), with the beast. 

"These have one (or the same) mind, and 
shall give their power and strength unto the 
beast." 

The little horn of Daniel and the ten-horned 
beast of Revelation set forth a supreme king, a 
supreme Caesar or Kaiser who will rise to reign 
and rule over the ten democratic kings who are 
to come into associated power with him in the 
territory and realm of ancient Rome. 

He is a coming king of kings and lord of 
lords. 

He is an imitation, a counterfeit king of kings, 
a forerunner and antagonist of the true King of 
kings. 

He is spoken of in Scripture under various 
titles. 

He is known as the little horn. 

(The attempt of a certain school of expositors 



640 THE FALLING STONE 

to make the little horn of Daniel eighth distinct 
from the little horn of Daniel seventh is a piece 
of disastrous, contradictory and confusing ex- 
egesis conceived in absolute error and certain to 
darken counsel with words without knowledge.) 
He is the prince that shall come. The king 
of fierce countenance. The king who under- 
stands dark sentences. The king of the North. 
The wilful king. He is known as the Rod of 
God's anger. The ax that hoasteth itself against 
God. The staff that lifts itself up. The man of the 
earth. The shaker of nations. The proud man. 
The spoiler. The extortioner. The nail that 
seeks to fasten itself in a sure place. He that Com- 
eth up out of the pit. Leviathan. The destroyer 
of fortresses. He who plans destruction while 
proposing peace. The piercing serpent. The 
crooked serpent. The transgressor. The man 
whose desire is as hell. The man who cannot be 
satisfied. The man who maketh the earth to 
tremble. The man who heapeth all nations to 
himself. The king. The ultimate fool who says 
in his heart there is no God. The king for whom 
Tophet is prepared. The wicked one. The law- 



THE FALLING STONE 64 1 

less one. The man wiser than Daniel, The 
man from whom no secret can he hidden. The 
man of sin. The son of perdition. The man who 
says *^I will be like the Most High,*' The man 
who exalteth himself as God, The man whose 
coming is after the energy of Satan, The man 
who will come with all lying signs and wonders. 
The Assyrian, The Chaldean, The king of 
Babylon, 

He will arise as a military leader and then as 
king from Babylon. Babylon will rise and grow 
like a mushroom. It will come up as in a night. 
It will be the commercial center of the East and 
West. Already railway tracks are pointing to 
Bagdad and the ruins of the ancient city. I 
have read a letter recently written from Baby- 
lon in which the writer said, could we but see 
how the old canals of the Euphratean valley had 
been redigged and how every sign indicated the 
"Drive to the East," we would be startled at the 
near approach of that prophetic hour when the 
golden city should once more rise in all her 
power and glory. 

This man of many titles is he who is symbol- 



642 THE FALLING STONE 

ized by the 'Wild Beast," and is definitely de- 
clared by John to be 'The Anti-Christ" 

He is foreshadowed by Nimrod, the original 
builder of Babylon, and who is called, literally, 
the "mighty rebel," by Chedorlaomer, by Saul, 
by Absalom (the denier of the Father) by 
Herod, and by such an one as Antiochus Epiph- 
anes. 

By intrigue, by diplomacy he will become 
king and possessor of Babylon. He will subdue 
or bring under control, Persia, all Asia Minor, 
Syria, Palestine and Egypt, 

On account of the troubled and reactionary 
times the ten kings will invite him to* become 
dictator, world ruler. He will accept. He will 
take the title of the Prince of Rome (Daniel says 
he will be the prince of the people who de- 
stroyed Jerusalem. The people who destroyed 
Jerusalem were Romans; therefore, he will be 
the prince of the 'Romans, Prince of Rome). 

Thus will Rome be revived under its tenfold 
form. 

Elected as head of the ten kings, he will be a 
king of kings and lord of lords. 



THE FALLING STONE 643 

His character is clearly set before as in Scrip- 
ture. 

He is a man of "fierce countenance," of such 
immense personality, such greatness of individ- 
uality that men will humble themselves before 
him. 

His military genius is so supreme none can be 
compared with him; not Alexander, who con- 
quered a world at thirty-three; not Hannibal, 
who trod the Alps beneath him as though they 
were but hillocks; not Caesar, who triumphed 
over Gaul; not Napoleon, who combined and 
exceeded the genius of all; not Napoleon, who 
stands as a soldier without a peer; not one nor 
all of these are more than pigmies by his side. 
His forethought, his knowledge of detail, his 
ability to penetrate and know the secret thought 
of his foe, his anticipation of events, will enable 
him to pass through all opposition as though it 
were an open door and made ready for his pur- 
pose. He will stride from victory to victory. 

He is a scientist, a high priest of the occult. 
His hand is upon the forces of the unseen. He 
has a god he worships, an invisible presence, a 



644 THE FALLING STONE 

mighty spirit whose bidding he gladly obeys. 
This god is he whom Scripture defines as ''that 
old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan," "the 
great dragon." The Apostle John says the drag- 
on, or Devil, will give him ''his power, his 
throne, and great authority." The Apostle Paul 
says his "coming is after the working (or en- 
ergy) of Satan." Because of this Satan whom 
the apostle calls "the god of this world," and 
whom our Lord affirms to be the "prince (and 
ruler) of this world," he will come with "all 
power and signs and deceiving wonder s,^^ won- 
ders and signs so great that were it at all possible, 
the Son of God says, he would deceive the very 
elect. 

He is a statesman. He sees that Germany and 
Russia will seek to combine for the possession of 
the East. He will pass into Palestine. He will 
restore the land to the Jew. He will use the 
ships of one of the ten nations to bring them 
from distant countries. He will set up the Jew- 
ish state. He will make "Zionism" a political 
fact. He will enter into a treaty with the head 
of the state for seven years. His object will be to 



THE FALLING STONE 645 

build Up a buffer against the inroad of either 
Germany or Russia. 

At the end of three years and a half he will 
break his treaty. 

The judgment of God will be loosed upon him 
and his kingdom as upon Pharaoh and Egypt. 
It will stir up the fierceness, the wickedness and 
blasphemy of the king. He will turn in fury 
upon the Jews. He will become their most bit- 
ter and cruel persecutor. It will be the time the 
prophet has foretold as the "day of Jacob's trou- 
ble." It is the hour of which the Lord has 
warned as the "Great Tribulation," a condition 
so fearful, so full of suffering and mortal an- 
guish, suffering from the hand of man, from 
devils and the judgments of God, that He has 
said there has never been anything like it since 
the world began, there never will be anything 
like it again; a time so full of agony and woe, 
of darkness, despair and deep depression that 
unless God should shorten the time "there should 
be no flesh saved." 

Rebellion breaks out against the emperor. 

Egypt rebels. 



646 THE FALLING STONE 

He gathers his armies. He marches thither. 
He lays his hand upon the treasures. He spoils 
the land. He sweeps back the rebellious tide. 

A rebellion breaks out in Jerusalem. 

Witnesses have arisen who testify against 
him as the son of perdition. They seek to turn 
the hearts of the Jews back to the faith of the 
fathers. They proclaim that Jesus of Naza- 
reth was the true Messiah, that He is the true 
and covenant King, the Holy One of Israel, the 
God of the whole earth. They announce He is 
coming to Jerusalem to deliver His elect. They 
appeal to the people to turn away from the em- 
peror as the "refuge of lies." They affirm the 
covenant with him to be a "covenant with death 
and hell," and call upon the people to disannul 
it and repudiate him. 

The "elect remnant" hear the call and re- 
spond. They deny all allegiance to this "man of 
the earth." 

In fury he enters into "the land of the glory," 
the Holy Land. He marches with mad haste 
and threatenings toward Jerusalem. 

In the midst of his rush "tidings out of the 



THE FALLING STONE 647 

East and out of the North trouble him." He 
hears that Babylon is threatened. The waters 
of the Euphrates are drying up. The armies 
from the '^sunrise" kingdom are moving west- 
ward. He goes forth with increased fury to de- 
stroy. He changes his route and marches north- 
ward to the plain of Esdraelon, called in Scrip- 
ture, Har Mageddon, From the beginning this 
plain has been the gathering place of armies. 
The dews of Hermon have fallen here upon the 
banners of nearly every nation of the earth, upon 
Assyrian, Arabian, Babylonian and Egyptian. 
Here Crusader and Saracen have met, the 
squares of France have withstood the dash of 
Mamelukes, the West and the East have clashed 
for victory, scimetar and spear have answered 
sword and gun and the blood of men poured out 
without measure has fructified the soil, given 
growth to grasses, lush and long, and painted 
with deeper crimson the scarlet poppies of the 
field. 

In this great gathering place he is joined by 
fresh contingents. After a pause, he turns south- 
ward again and marches toward the sacred city. 



648 THE FALLING STONE 

Isaiah describes his march. With hurrying 
footstep he moves. He will not allow his bag- 
gage to detain him. Here to-night scarcely halt- 
ing, miles away ere noon to-morrow. Terror 
fills the air. The inhabitants of villages flee at 
his approach. Women wail at the mention of 
his name. He comes in sight of the city. Like 
Titus of old he pitches his headquarters on Sco- 
pus. Jerusalem is surrounded. His troops fill 
the valley of Jehoshaphat. The prophecy of 
Joel begins to be fulfilled ; as it is written : 

"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of de- 
cision; for the day of the Lord is near in the 
valley of decision.'' 

For the Lord has said: 

"I will also gather all nations, and will bring 
them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and 
will plead with them there." 

It is the valley of decision. 

It is the hour of decision. 

The hour of consummation and that deter- 
mined on is at hand. 

The city is taken, the houses rifled, the women 
ravished, half of the people are made prisoners.. 



THE FALLING STONE 649 

The king goes to the temple which he had per- 
mitted the people to rebuild. He seats himself 
in the Most Holy place. He claims that he is 
very God. God is force, He is energy. En- 
ergy and force are God. Man is the highest ex- 
pression of that energy and force. He is the en- 
thronement of it personally and intellectually. 
If men will worship the idea of God, he the 
King as supreme among all men is the supreme, 
the ultimate manifestation of that idea. In him 
men may find God. There is none other God 
than man, and as supreme man, he is supreme 
God. By the hand of his prime minister he 
works signs and wonders that might well de- 
ceive the elect. He brings down fire out of 
heaven. He sets up an image of the king. He 
causes it to be placed on the pinnacle of the tem- 
ple in the sight of all. He commands men to 
worship it, to pay divine honors, as of old they 
were paid to the image of Rome's emperors. 

All who would do business are commanded 
to wear the mark, or the name, or the number 
of the name of the emperor, either on the fore- 
head or on the right hand. 



650 THE FALLING STONE 

The whole world trembles before him, and 
yet acclaims him. 

He seems to have reached the apex of his 
glory. 

And now note — 

In giving the description of the image Daniel 
begins with the golden head, then the breast and 
arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the 
legs of iron and the toes, part iron and part clay; 
but when a statue has been cast we begin to build 
and set it up at the feet and work upward to the 
head. The head is the last piece set on. It is the 
climax. 

This is the fashion in which the antitypical, 
the actual political statue will be set up. 

The ten kings will come into view. 

These kings or kingdoms will comprise all 
that was once Rome as to territory, the kingdom 
of Greece in its fullest extent, Medo-Persia, 
Babylon; and then — this eleventh king, the king 
who is over all will come as the antitypical 
golden head. He will be the real king of Baby- 
lon whom the prophet sees in his shadowy form 
standing behind Nebuchadnezzar when he says 
unto him, "Thou art this head of gold." 



THE FALLING STONE 65 I 

There he sits in the temple of God. the head 
of gold, the king of Babylon, the man of sin, the 
son of perdition, the lawless one, the Anti-christ. 

And there for a moment I shall leave him and 
ask you now to consider with me the falling stone 
which as it fell smote the image on its feet and 
broke it in pieces. 

There are five things to be considered. 

The mountain out of which the stone was cut. 

The stone cut out of the mountains. 

The stone cut out of the mountain without 
hands. 

The falling stone. 

The stone becoming a great mountain and 
filling the earth. 

The mountain out of which the stone was cut. 

Strangely enough expositors and commenta- 
tors have ignored this mountain, or passed 
lightly over the mention of it; and yet, it is in 
itself a key and factor among the symbols. 

In the thirtieth psalm and seventh verse, 
David says : 

"Lord, by Thy favour Thou hast made my 
mountain to stand strong." 



652 THE FALLING STONE 

By "mountain" David means his throne and 
kingdom, the throne and kingdom of Israel. 

The mountain out of which the stone was cut 
is the nation and kingdom of Israel, but specially 
that side of the kingdom which is Judah. 

In saying the stone was cut out of the moun- 
tain Daniel is saying it was taken out of Israel, 
out of Judah. 

The stone cut out of the mountain. 

The stone is our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Standing before the Jewish Sanhedrim and 
answering concerning the healing of the lame 
man, as recorded in the book of Acts, fourth 
chapter, tenth and eleventh verses, the Apostle 
Peter says: 

"Be it known unto you all, and to all the peo- 
ple of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised 
from the dead, even by him doth this man stand 
before you whole. 

^^This is the stone which was set at naught of 
you builders, which is become the head of the 
corner." 



THE FALLING STONE 6 S3 

In his first epistle Peter says of our Lord 
Jesus Christ that He is: 

^^A living stone, disallowed of men, but chosen 
of God and precious." 

He quotes the Word of God in the twenty- 
eighth chapter of the prophet Isaiah: 

''Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, 
elect, precious; and he that believeth on Him 
(the stone) shall not be confounded." 

To those who are unbelievers the apostle says 
our Lord Jesus Christ is: 

"A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence." 

In His discourse recorded in the twenty-first 
chapter of Matthew, our Lord Himself affirms 
that He is the stone and in warning and far- 
reaching words says : 

'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be 
broken ; but on whomsoever it shall fallj it will 
grind him to powder," 

Beyond all question, then, our Lord Jesus 
Christ is the stone cut out of the mountain. 

The stone cut out of the mountain without 
hands. 

As "hands" stand for the use of means which 



654 THE FALLING STONE 

are natural, ^Svithout" hands signifies means that 
are not natural, means that are beyond natural. 
It is the inspired and adverb way of saying 
'^ sup ernatur ally/' As the mountain is Israel, 
and the stone is our Lord Jesus Christ, then 
our Lord Jesus Christ was supernaturally 
brought out of Israel. To be brought out or 
cut out of Israel, signifies to originate in Israel. 
To originate in and out of Israel is to be born in 
and of Israel. The statement that the stone was 
cut out of the mountain without hands is the sym- 
bolic way of saying the birth of our Lord Jesus 
Christ as an Israelite, as a Jew, was supernatural. 
It is the symbolic way of saying our Lord Jesus 
Christ should not have a natural father, that 
God should be His Father, and therefore as 
He would be directly begotten of God, His 
mother, in the nature of the case should be vir- 
gin. It is the prophecy that our Lord Jesus 
Christ should be virgin born, Son of God and 
God the Son. 

Thus away back in that far dream of a Baby- 
lonian king, God the Almighty stamped in the 
midst of the symbols, in the story of the image, 



THE FALLING STONE 6SS 

the foredetermined and amazing fact of the vir- 
gin birth. 

The falling of the stone. 

The stone should fall upon the feet of the 
image and break it to pieces. 

The falling of the stone is the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

Is the falling of the stone the symbol of His 
first Coming, as it is so taught by some? 

To answer that question I will ask another : 

When our Lord Jesus Christ came the first 
time did He fall upon the Roman Empire, over- 
throw it and break it in pieces? Nay! on the 
contrary, the Roman government at the instiga- 
tion of the Jewish Sanhedrim fell on Him and 
nailed Him to a cross. He was so despised and 
rejected of men, His own nation so refused to 
own or accept Him as King, that God the Father 
took Him to His own right hand in Heaven 
where for two thousand years He has been seated 
as an exile from His own land and throne. 

He did not fall upon the feet of the image 
when He came the first time. 

Has He, as some teach, during this time of His 



6s6 THE FALLING STONE 

absence in Heaven, set up His kingdom on earth ; 
and has this kingdom consumed and set aside all 
the other kingdoms of the earth? 

Is he now ruling over a world universally sur- 
rendered to Him, singing His name in praise 
and walking in the ways of righteousness and 
peace? 

The kingdom of Christ here! 

The kingdoms of this world become the king- 
doms of our Lord and His Christ! 

Christ reigning and ruling in all lands and 
owned of all men as the authoritative Prince of 
Peace! 

How can men have the hardihood, the blind- 
ness of soul and the deafness of spirit even to 
suggest such propositions when every gale that 
comes across the sea brings the sound of battle 
and the shout of contending foes? 

The kingdom of Christ here! or, the slightest 
hint or shadowy indication that it is enlarging, 
expanding with growing power and all compel- 
ling word! How can men find it in their hearts 
to proclaim such things in the ears of men when 
capital and labor are in daily conflict; when law- 



THE FALLING STONE 657 

lessnesses are multiplied, when crime and vio- 
lence are on the increase; when there is distress 
of nations and perplexity; when the people are 
tossing and rushing with the unrest of the seas ; 
when the Church is divided; when sects spring 
up like the weeds of the field, each sect with a 
doctrine in the name of Christ which contra- 
dicts or antagonizes the other; so that, since the 
hour when Christ offered the prayer that His 
disciples might be "one," the prayer was never 
so far from being answered and never seemed so 
hopeless; when infidelity is multiplied and men 
in the pulpit openly deny the incarnation of 
Christ, His bodily resurrection and refuse to 
accept the Bible as the inspired, the infallible 
Word of God! 

To talk and teach that the kingdom of Christ 
is here, that it came when Christ first came, that 
His first coming was the falling of the stone — 
may well lead any one familiar with Holy Scrip- 
ture to ask whence comes the inspiration to such 
teaching. 

But there is one fact which overwhelmingly 
confutes these follies and rebukes the excuseless- 



658 THE FALLING STONE 

ness of the errors, the fact which demonstrates 
the kingdom has not been set up, that the stone 
has not fallen. 

And this is the fact: 

When the stone falls it is to smite upon the 
ten toes of the image and break it in pieces; and 
as the ten toes represent ten kings and their king- 
doms, the ten kings and the ten kingdoms must 
he politically existing when Christ comes. In 
addition to that, they must be organized and 
confederated under the supreme or eleventh 
king represented by the head of gold. 

No such political conditions existed when our 
Lord Jesus Christ came the first time. 

They have never existed at any time since He 
left the world. 

They do not exist to-day. 

And as the Coming of Christ is to smash these 
kings and overwhelm them with their blasphe- 
mous head before the kingdom can be set up then 
not only has the kingdom of Christ never been 
set up, but the falling of the stone does not rep- 
resent the first Coming of Christ. 

If the falling of the stone does not represent 



THE FALLING STONE 659 

the first Coming of Christ (and it does not, and 
cannot) then the falling of the stone is the divine 
symbol of our Lord's Second Coming to set up 
the fifth and final world power, the fifth and 
final and eternal kingdom. 

And mark how He is coming. 

Not silently as when the dawn steals over the 
night; not as when the kiss of love is pressed 
upon the lips; not as when the fragrance of a 
flower is borne on the air, but, as when a stone is 
flung from the hand and comes crashingly down, 
smiting and breaking, crushing and destroying 
that on which it falls. 

He is coming to smite the image on its feet. 

He is coming to smite the ten confederate 
kings. 

He is coming to overthrow the colossal, the 
Devil-inspired combination and lay the golden 
head in the dust. 

He is coming where these kings and their 
armies shall be gathered, and where this golden 
head shall exalt himself in wanton bravado 
against the God of heaven and against His 
Christ. 



66o THE FALLING STONE 

They will be gathered at Jerusalem. 

Hear what God has said, and what He will 
do: 

"I will gather all nations (that is the ten na- 
tions) against Jerusalem to battle." 

"I will also gather all nations, and will bring 
them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat." 

Our Lord will come to Jerusalem to meet this 
gathering of the nations. 

He will destroy the armies of the king. 

He will cast him and his prime minister, the 
false prophet, into the lake of fire. 

Then will He set up that kingdom which shall 
never be destroyed, that fifth and final kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed, concerning 
which, if the Lord should tarry, I shall speak to 
you on the coming Lord's day night. 

From all this I learn : 

God's forecast of world politics is now being 
fulfilled, and every fulfilling event is the daily 
demonstration that this hook, the Bible, is the 
fully inspired, inerrant Word of God, 

Stand with me here in Babylon and look down 



THE FALLING STONE 66 i 

the sweep of twenty-five hundred years of human 
history foreseen and forecast of God. 

Through the lips of His prophet He said the 
Persians should come and overthrow Babylon. 

And there on time, some forty years later, 
comes Cyrus with the silver corsleted Persians. 
He enters the golden city and claims it as his 
own. 

God, in His unfailing Word, said the Greeks 
should come, trample the Persian host beneath 
their feet. 

Behold Alexander at the head of his brazen- 
coated Greeks, plunging through the waters of 
the Granicus and enthroning himself here at 
Babylon as the master of the world. 

God the Lord said Rome should be the great 
world conqueror. 

Behold it rising from its seven hills, stretching 
out its grasp upon the nations, peoples, kindreds 
and tongues, till everywhere is heard the tramp 
of the iron legions and the shouts of victory. 

And we have reached this hour. 

In this hour, the culmination of all that has 
gone before, all the nations and peoples who once 



662 THE FALLING STONE 

formed the Roman Empire are at war with one 
another. 

Over the sounds of conflict the ominous words 
of the Son of God sound more ominous than 
ever: 

''Nation shall rise against nation, and king- 
dom against kingdom." 

The "clay" is beginning to make itself known. 

The people are full of murmuring and dis- 
content. 

The spirit of revolt is in the air. 

The people are sick of kings and dynasties. 

Presently there will be national upheavals. 

Kings will lose their crowns. 

The form of a government will be changed in 
a day. 

The cry will be democracy against autocracy. 

The people will break the bands of centuries 
and cast aside the cords of custom. 

Democracies will move to the threshold of 
anarchy. 

License will offer a bribe to liberty. 

Everywhere there will be the need of iron 
hands. 



THE FALLING STONE 663 

These conditions are already in travail. 

The birth throes are giving their pains and the 
sense of woe is in the body politic. 

The shadow of iron men is falling even while 
the people in their unrest talk of freedom. 

The way is being prepared for remaking the 
map of Europe and Asia. 

Out of the new making must come sooner or 
later, the ordained and fatal ten. 

Over all is the shadow of the great world head. 

As the conflict deepens, as conditions become 
complex men talk more openly about the neces- 
sity of concentrating powers. Whether in com- 
merce, in trade, in politics or the prosecution of 
war. 

The people while they demand liberty on the 
one side, are calling for men who can unify their 
wishes, execute their will, and yet do it with au- 
thority, personalism and power that in other days 
would have been called absolutism of govern- 
ment, usurpation of privilege. 

Deeper and darker grows the shadow of the 
great world Head, the shadow of that Devil-be- 
gotten man who is the forerunner of the Christ, 



664 THE FALLING STONE 

the imitation king of kings and lord of lords — 
the Anti-christ — the world's last Kaiser or 
Caesar. 

Every day the events of the day are fulfilling 
the forecast, and the warning of God. 

Every thunder of cannon, every shriek of 
shell, every groan of the wounded, and moan of 
the dying, all the unrest, the fear and the quiver- 
ing uncertainty paralyzing men and nations are 
crying aloud in our ears if we will but hear it. 

"Fulfilled! Fulfilled!" 

Because all the downsweep of history, all the 
combination and move of circumstances are pro- 
claiming this prophetic word to be the Word of 
God; and because every day the words of Dan- 
iel to the Babylonian king are being echoed and 
re-echoed in the march of events, "the dream is 
certain, and the interpretation thereof sure;" be- 
cause all the signs of the times indicate that the 
way is being rapidly prepared for the rise of the 
ten kings, the revival of the Roman Empire, the 
appearance and exaltation of the man of sin; 
because all such signs indicate that the great day 
when the Son of God shall appear in glory and 



THE FALLING STONE 66^ 

like the stone flung down upon the image will 
come to smite all that is opposed to Him, to exe- 
cute wrath and judgment upon all who are not 
in union and fellowship with Him; and because, 
as I have taught you consistently through these 
sermons that before our Lord appears as King 
He will descend into the air and call His 
Church up to meet Him; because He is coming 
as the Bridegroom for His Bride, for the real, 
the true, the genuine and regenerated part of the 
professing Church ; and because He might come 
for her at any moment; because between us and 
that solemn event there is not the thickness of the 
vapor that floats above the morning hills, I ap- 
peal to you who are professing Christians that 
5^ou make your calling and election sure. 

There is something more required of you than 
to say: "I believe," be baptized, join church, 
have your name on the church book and pay your 
pew rent or contribution : 

There are "things which accompany salva- 
tion." 

You are called to turn your back on the old 
way, to live the life that is new and sweet and 



666 THE FALLING STONE 

clean; to walk in the highway of holiness, of 
righteousness and truth; to ascend to the plane 
of spiritual experience and translate the life of 
Christ in daily character to the sons of men. 

A Christian is one who seeks to walk in fel- 
lowship with God and make His Son the Master 
of his days. "For Christ's sake" he will do the 
one thing, and "for Christ's sake" he will refuse 
to do the other. "For me to live is Christ" will 
be his watchword, his inspiration and the im- 
pulse of every hour. He may stumble, he may 
fall, but he will not lie still ; if the root of the 
matter be in him he will arise and go forw^ard 
with renewed determination to live the Chris- 
tian life. 

I shall never forget what I once saw when a 
Christian much provoked in a sudden flash of 
anger at the unjust attitude of another, uttered 
on oath, and the unbeliever who had so greatly 
tried him said, "That is fine, and you are a 
Christian too." But the Christian who had 
spoken so unadvisedly, so profanely with his lips 
turned to the man who had been so mocking, so 
pitiless, and with actual tears staining his cheek 



THE FALLING STONE 667 

replied, "What I have just said has broken my 
heart, not because you think of me as you do, 
but because I should have done so evil a thing. 
God knows I love my Lord with all my heart. 
Forgive me that I may have led you to think 
lightly of His Name, even for a moment." 

What a back ground that was ! black enough 
to be sure, but a background on which that care- 
less and most provoking unbeliever could read 
in the light of penitent tears and in the evidence 
of genuine heart-ache that this stumbling Chris- 
tian taken unaware was a Christian not only in 
name but in fact. 

You will make mistakes. We all do, because 
that old nature bequeathed from Adam is still 
within us and seeks to assault us when off our 
guard; but, if the divine life be there in you, 
you will hate the sin, confess it and call on 
God to lift you more and more above the flesh, 
and more and more to fill you with His Holy 
Spirit, with His power and grace. Nothing will 
keep you back. Like the apostle you will for- 
get the things that are behind. You will press 
on in spite of every hindrance to the shining 



668 THE FALLING STONE 

mark, the goal of constant fellowship and un- 
broken communion with your Lord. You will 
repudiate each weakness and snatch victory from 
defeat. 

If you do not love the things of God; if you 
do not care for the House of God and the exer- 
cise of prayer; if you prefer the world and the 
ways of the world; if your heart is set on the 
pleasures it offers and you are determined to 
drink of its cups at any cost to the profession you 
make; if with all this indifference, this unre- 
strained carelessness to the claims of Christ and 
the manner and fashion in which those who wear 
His name should walk, you still keep that name 
and allow the breath of scandal to breathe upon 
it and the mire of worldliness to stain it, then 
I exhort you to arouse and satisfy yourself, and 
others as well as yourself, whether the profes- 
sion you make is but an empty sound on a care- 
less tongue; or, whether the life of the risen 
Christ be really in you, slight and unmanifested 
though it may be. 

You cannot elect yourself, but you can find 
out whether you are elect; whether down in the 



THE FALLING STONE 669 

core of your heart you care to love and serve the 
Lord. 

You have no time to lose. 

If the Lord should come and you be left out- 
side, revealed to all the world as no more than 
an idle professor your fate of all v^ould be the 
worst; for, I read that such will be cast out into 
outer darkness where there shall be weeping and 
wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

Make your calling and election sure to-night. 

Do not wait for to-morrow. 

And now to you, the unsaved. 

Unsaved! 

What a word is that. 

And what does it mean to be unsaved? 

It means to miss union and fellowship with 
Christ. 

It means to miss communion with the sweetest 
and tenderest man who ever lived. It means to 
miss the touch of the power that healed the sick 
and quickened the dead. It means to miss all 
that makes life worth living in this world; all 
that can give strength in weakness, joy in sor- 
row, hope in despair; all that can make life to 



670 THE FALLING STONE 

be more than mere existence, brute-being and 
limited self-consciousness. 

It means to be blind, so blind you cannot see 
the wonder and the beauty of the landscape and 
Him who painted it. 

It means to be deaf, so deaf you cannot hear 
the symphony nor the song the spirit sings in 
trusting souls. 

It means to be dumb, as dumb as the man who 
has great whelming, surging thoughts within his 
soul and cannot speak them. So dumb you can- 
not speak the word of faith. 

It means to be half-paralyzed, and only that 
alive in you which is not worth the living by 
itself — the animal, the brute innate in you and 
in all men. 

It means to be dead, dead as the man wrapped 
in the shroud, dead, spiritually dead, without 
God without Christ, and without hope in the 
world. 

What hope has any man outside the Bible and 
the Christ of God? 

What do you know of the beyond? 

Are you a fool of fools? 



THE FALLING STpNE 671 

Are you willing to stand on the edge of eter- 
nity as it crumbles under your feet? 

Are you willing to stand there and liable to go 
any moment? 

In eternity and unsaved! 

Unsaved! Forsaken of God at last. 

Listen! What does it mean to be forsaken of 
God? 

It has been defined in the most tremendous 
words that ever came from human lips; that 
cry on the cross : 

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me?" 

It is the cry of God's Christ. 

He died on that cross as a sacrifice for sin. He 
died as a substitute for the believer. He was 
forsaken of God that the believer might never 
be forsaken. 

If you do not believe, if you do not accept 
Him, you will be forsaken, and the cry of agony 
will be your cry. 

To be forsaken of God! 

The Lord Himself has endeavored to tell us 
what it means. 



672 THE FALLING STONE 

He has told us of the rich man in hell. 

He could not get a drop of water for his 
parched tongue. 

He could not send a warning to his five breth- 
ren that he might keep them from the place of 
torment. 

Between him and the rest beyond there was a 
great gulf fixed, bottomless, measureless, with- 
out a bridge. 

He had only two things. 

The memory of the good things he had left 
behind him. 

The certainty of a hopeless, endless future 
before him. 

O man, to be unsaved! Think of it! 

To take your soul into eternity without a 
guarantee. 

You may have wealth, you may have an in- 
come of a million a year. You may live for fifty 
years and in perfect health, drink of every joy, 
gratify every desire, then die and leave your 
millions to some fool to squander. 

The body will be put in the ground. It will 
moulder. It will decay to dust but your squU 



THE FALLING STONE 673 

Ah! There are things in the soul that hurt us. 

The pain, the regret, the anguish in a soul last 
up to the final second, to the last breath; and in 
some souls have been more intense than in all the 
preceding years. 

What is the logic of that? 

It is simple enough. It is the truth that your 
body may wither, die, but your soul will con- 
tinue, and continue to suffer. 

O man! if the race for wealth, your desire for 
the things of earth have kept you away from 
God and Christ; if your social relations and 
ambitions have made you put Christ aside you 
will go into eternity an empty soul, a beggar of 
beggars. All you have accomplished, all you 
may have achieved in the world will but serve to 
make your sorrow and suffering the greater. 

O man, man, unsaved! You have no right to 
face such a failure. 

You have no right to imperil your soul. 

The memory of happiness fled. 

The certainty of sorrow forever. 

Where are you going to spend your eternity — 
and how? 



674 THE FALLING STONE 

In all the universe of God there is no ques- 
tion so important as that. 

The mothers of some of you men are in yon- 
der Heaven. 

You have no right to go back upon the prayers 
their faith breathed out to God for you. 

You have no right to fling back the love of 
God, deny His Son, trample on His grace and 
destroy your soul. 

You can be saved now. 

The work has been done. 

There is nothing to do but receive and believe 
in a crucified and risen Lord, as it is written : 

^^If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that 
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt 
be saved." 

He is coming. When, we know not. 

The time is short, the days of grace are pass- 
ing. 

If you die as an unbeliever before Christ 
comes, you are lost forever. 

If Christ comes before you die while you are 
an unbeliever you are lost forever. 



THE FALLING STONE 675 

On the edge of the grave on the threshold of 
our Lord's imminent coming you are lost now. 

I call upon you. I call upon every man and 
woman in this house to-night to accept Jesus 
Christ as your personal Saviour, get under the 
blood of the cross. The blood He shed for such 
as you ; get on the side of eternal salvation, se- 
curity, and peace. 

Get there now lest He come, and it be too 
latel 



X 

THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 



The Thousand Years and 
After. 



My theme is : 

"The wonderful government God has prom- 
ised to set up on the earth in which every prob- 
lem of capital and labor, wealth and poverty, 
war and peace, health and disease, life and death 
will be perfectly and forever solved." 

The texts are three in number. (Revelation 
20: 4, Micah 4: 3, 4, Revelation 21 : i.) 

"They lived and reigned with Christ a thou- 
sand years." 

"They shall beat their swords into plow 
shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: 
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, 
neither shall they learn w^ar any more. 

"But, they shall sit every man under his vine 
and under his fig tree ; and none shall make them 
afraid." 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth." 

Human life is the most colossal failure in the 
universe of God. 



68o THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

In all the universe of God there is nothing 
equal to this failure. 

This failure is indicated and marked by four 
amazing characteristics — brevity, uncertainty, 
mystery and inadequacy. 

The brevity is measured by seventy years as 
the official term of life. 

Out of these seventy you must take twenty that 
the individual may reach majority; out of the 
fifty, you must take ten for the finding of a place 
in life; out of the forty, ten years more in which 
to achieve possible success; out of the remain- 
ing thirty, you must give one-half to sleep, to 
eating and drinking, and probable sickness; of 
the final fifteen, five years must be allotted for 
steps down the slant of life to the grave. 

Ten years of actual, possible living. 

And what are ten years? What is a decade? 
What are seventy years to the centuries and the 
ages gone, or the ages to come? 

O, it is brevity, indeed. 

And in such brevity, what is your life? 

It is a vapor, a mist above the morning hills, 
a bubble on the tide, the spume of a broken 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 68 1 

wave, a touch of the lips, a pressure of the hands, 
a sigh, the last notes of a song, a tale that is told; 
it is the flying of a bird out of the night through 
an open window across a banqueting hall with 
its light, its warmth, its clink of glass, the 
laughter and song, and out again through an 
open window into the night once more, the whir 
of a wing, a flash — and gone. 

O, it is brief, this life of yours and mine. 

If it be brief, it is unc*ertain. 

David, the king, said, 'There is but a step be- 
twixt me and death." 

He was wrong. There is only the beat of 
your heart. Here! let me put my finger on my 
pulse, one, two, three. I listen to my heart. I 
feel the thud of it here, striking under my ear. 
Let it stop ! — gone. 

A man and his wife sat at a table under the 
shade of the evening lamp, in the quiet of the 
home. 

He reached round and asked her to give him 
one of the new books from the rack. She passed 
it to him, remarking, she was sure he would 
like it. 



682 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

He answered kindly and loyally: 

^Tou have read it. If you liked it, I know I 
will." 

There was silence between them. 

Then, after a while, she asked, and naturally: 
"What do you think of it?" 

There was no answer. 

After a little longer silence, she said, calling 
him by his name : 

"I really believe you are asleep." 

Still he made no answer. 

Somewhat annoyed, she arose and looked at 
him. 

He was asleep. 

But it was that sleep, from which no man 
could wake him. 

The eyes were open, the book was in his grasp, 
but, he had gone. 

Over there in France where they put a crimi- 
nal to death they do not tell him the hour of his 
execution. 

There he lies asleep, across his narrow, iron 
bed. 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 683 

The gray light of the early morning comes 
filtering in through the bars of his cell. 

He is dreaming, dreaming of the days of boy- 
hood and the hours of innocence, some far away 
sunny day when he played in poppy-filled field 
or loitered by the murmuring brook. Suddenly 
he feels a hand laid on his shoulder. He awakes 
with a start to confront the stern gaze of silent 
men. Then they announce his appeal has been 
rejected. There is one imperative word spoken, 
^^Come." He arises and follows. There outside 
the prison door is the hideous, red thing that 
will take his life. 

That is just your case. 

You are under sentence of death. 

You do not know the hour. 

You are here to-night full of your plans and 
ambitions. 

Any moment the hand may be laid on you, the 
voice may bid you come ; and a week from now 
you may be under the sod, the wheel of time 
rolling over your grave and the place that knows 
you now knowing you no more forever. 

Uncertain is your life. 



684 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

If it be brief, if it be uncertain, it is a mystery. 

The scholar of Baliol has said, "The dust the 
summer winds waft hither, are not more dead to 
whence and wither?" 

Whence did we come? 

From some seed flung down by a swift passing 
world, or from a drop of protoplasmic matter 
that through long and weary ages evolved a 
snake, a serpent, a lizard, then anthropoid ape, 
a brutal beast of a man? 

Did we come from above or below? 

Have we fallen down or fallen up? 

What are we? 

Are we mud or mind, matter or spirit, angel 
or devil? 

What are these floating, fragmentary, remi- 
niscent things in us, the sound of a song, a laugh, 
the glimpse of a landscape, the babble of a 
stream over its stones, half felt emotions and 
blurred concepts? Are they the left-over things 
from a former existence? 

Is there any real, actual personality in us we 
may honestly call our own? How many indi- 
vidualities of past generations are struggling in 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 685 

US? Is our personality the concrete, or the multi- 
plication of other personalities; so that, some- 
times in a dozen moments a dozen different per- 
sons seem to be in us; or, we seem to be these 
different and distinctive persons? 

Have we a soul, after all, or is the soul noth- 
ing more than a function of a material construc- 
tion, and when the construction is broken up by 
death the function at an end? 

Whither do we go? 

When I die, when I breathe my last breath 
shall I step into an unseen chariot and be swept 
upward to the open gates flung wide to welcome 
me to the inviting and longed-for city of peace 
and joy; or, when I die, does the bell ring, the 
curtain drop, the footlights go out, the play over 
— the house empty — night and silence? 

Oh, listen. I listen, and all I can hear is the 
plash of a tear or the sound of the clods as they 
fall on the coffin lid. 

Over all is the abiding question: 

'To BE, or NOT to BE?" 

And the question is always followed by — a 
Guess, 



686 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

Brevity, uncertainty, mystery and crown- 
ing all — 

Inadequacy. 

Ask a man who has lived seventy years, who 
has arrived, who has achieved something in life, 
whether he is satisfied ; whether all he has put 
into his years of effort and toil finds its compen- 
sation in his success. He will smile at you. We 
know more at twenty than w^e do at seventy. A 
man has to live many years to find out how little 
he knows, how little he can know. 

You have read, perhaps, that story of Balzac, 
the "Peau de Chagrin." A man found a wild 
ass's skin. It enabled him to obtain his wish; 
but each time a wish was granted the skin shrank, 
and when the last wish was accorded, it shriv- 
eled up. 

You have to pay for what you achieve. It 
costs tremendously. Your soul shrinks, your 
mind shrinks and your body shrinks. You pay 
out your soul, your mind, your body. You give 
away your life forces. That is the reason why 
men who have achieved things have wrinkled 
foreheads and bent bodies. They are a mass of 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 687 

quivering nerves. Their bodies are like torture 
chambers. They are full of anguish and pain. 

Tell me, does this effort, the labor of mind 
and body, the heart ache, the lamentation, the 
tragedy pay for what you get out of life; for 
the suffering, the intensity? Ah, some of us have 
lived a million years in a moment. In that mo- 
ment was concentrated all there is of feeling, 
experience, the innermost of damnation. 

Does it pay? 

But, I am speaking of the man who has suc- 
ceeded. 

Look at the great mass. 

They are like dumb driven cattle, like galley 
slaves chained to the oar, pulling at the oar but 
making no progress. 

They have nothing. They have no home, nor 
even a piece of ground to be buried in. They 
live from hand to mouth. They are whip- 
lashed by necessity. They have no hope. There 
is no light in their countenance. They are like 
machines wound up. At last a cog breaks, or a 
wheel, something falls out of place, they go to 
pieces and are cast aside like a lot of scrap into 
the dump heap of dust we call the grave. 



688 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

Nor is this all. Men are filled with passions, 
with appetites; and these passions and appetites 
leap upon them like wolves, like wild beasts. 
Men hate them, cry out against them and then, 
follow them, yield to them, shiveringly obey 
them as rod-smitten bond slaves. 

Nor even, is this all. Men do not die as the 
day dies, softly, but again and again with agony, 
fearing to die; but because of their sufferings 
cursing each moment they do not die. 

Look about you, look upon the world, a world 
full of agony, of tragedy and unspeakable an- 
guish in body, soul, mind, and tell me that this 
is the best and most perfect life; tell me that 
human life is a triumphant success; be brave, 
honest and independent of convention and speak 
the truth. 

The incompleteness of life mechanically is 
daily demonstrated. 

You use a telescope and boast of it, but you 
use it because your eyes fall short in vision. You 
use a telephone because your voice will not 
carry. You have rapid transit to overcome the 
$lownes$ of your natural locomotion. Every sur- 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 689 

geon, every physician is a protest against the 
failure of the body; every teacher is a testimony 
to the need of the mind ; every act of legislation, 
all the efforts at reform are protests on the part 
of man against his present condition. 

All these bear witness that human life is not 
complete, that in so far as its incompleteness it 
is a failure. 

And the failure of life individually is empha- 
sized by its failure governmentally. 

The record of human government is the rec- 
ord of battle, bloody tyranny and oppression, 
tragedy and lamentation, murdered men, vio- 
lated women, orphaned children, ruined cities, 
monuments overturned, fields scorched with 
fire, civilization destroyed; the history of the 
world is the history of one civilization after an- 
other destroyed. At this present moment fifteen 
or twenty of the foremost nations of the earth 
are leaping at each other's throats gorging 
themselves with one another's blood. All the 
genius and science of man is engaged in invent- 
ing instruments of destruction. The victory is 
reckoned by the number of the enemy killed, 



690 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

wounded, maimed or made prisoners. Each is 
seeking to do the other the greater harm. Each 
is looking over the trench at the other in the 
hope the other will starve and agonize. And if 
to-night the world should end the angels of God 
would look eastward in horror at Ypres, La 
Chapelle, the Somme, Verdun and the battle- 
fields of the South and East and say, "there 
human government went down in blood and 
shame." 

If peace should now be made it could not 
abide. It would only be the prelude to fiercer 
conflict. 

England could not demobilize. An English 
admiral has said if Germany had moved by 
sea and land upon England at the beginning, 
England was so unprepared, so defenseless she 
would have been at the feet of Germany and 
her vassal for a hundred years. England just 
came too near to disaster to disband her army 
now. 

France was too near being caught and held at 
Calais to set aside her heroic and self-devoted 
army. 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 69 1 

Russia has learned that no matter how many 
millions of men she may have they are of no 
avail without artillery and guns, plentiful ammu- 
nition and strict discipline. 

Germany after nearly three years of war in 
which she has been able to keep the invaders' 
feet from off her soil, feels herself justified in 
the forty years' preparation that gave her at the 
outset the best guns and gives her to-day the 
present strength in organization, in generalship 
and power. Germany cannot disband that army 
which so far has been a rampart of steel against 
which the Allies have dashed in vain. 

But admit for the sake of argument the na- 
tions should disarm and peace be declared, the 
Word of the living God has said that at the 
very time when they shall say peace and safety 
sudden destruction shall come upon them as 
travail upon a woman with child and they 
shall not escape; and over all is heard the 
words of the Son of God declaring that to the 
end wars and desolations are determined; that 
till He Himself returns there will be wars and 
rumors of wars, that nation shall rise against 
nation. 



692 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

Admit that peace will be made, it could not 
be permanent. 

The need and the law of expansion among the 
nations would make it impossible. 

Germany must expand. She feels her need to 
push eastward and to the Persian Gulf. Should 
she do so she would be at the back door of India 
and this' would cut the British Empire in two. 
She would be a barricade in the way of Russia 
to that Constantinople she has coveted for cen- 
turies. Germany must expand upon the sea. 
Within the last ten or fifteen years she has shown 
her ability to compete in the markets of the 
world and her ^'Made in Germany" was a chal- 
lenge and an issue with every nation. Should 
she expand her marine she would menace the su- 
premacy of England on the sea, and when the 
supremacy of England on the sea is set aside she 
is shorn of her power and sooner or later would 
be cut loose from her ^^little lions," her colonies 
across the seas. Should the North Sea become 
in reality the German Sea, should Germany ob- 
tain control of the English Channel it would be 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 693 

English no longer and France would be reduced 
to a province. 

In the nature of the case the effort at ex- 
pansion made on the part of each nation would 
require the support and need of armies to en- 
force and sustain it. 

But let it be said that disarmament remains 
and war upon the battlefield is at an end, there 
will be seen rising on the horizon that immense 
and spectrelike thing we call the social revo- 
lution. 

At noontide look upward to the sky. There it 
is like the blue dome of an infinite temple. The 
sun is hanging in the midst like a scintillating 
censer and pouring forth the wealth of its golden 
light. The mountains rise in the distance like 
the altars of the gods. The valleys are like laps 
of bounty, the rivers stretch like silver harp- 
strings to the sea. The sea thunders back its 
diapason and pours its foam-fringed waves like 
^^kneeling worshippers" upon the shore. The 
forests range over hill and dale like unbroken 
ranks of marching armies, the waters of river 
and lake and sea are full of fish, the woods are 



694 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

full of game, there is land everywhere in rich- 
ness and beauty, land enough and room enough 
for every man to have a home and gratify his 
every natural and implanted need. 

And yet, it is not so. 

It is to-day as it always has been. The few 
are rich, the many are poor. In spite of all pro- 
test against the phrase, nevertheless it is true, 
the rich grow richer and the poor poorer. 

In olden times when the multitude began to 
murmur they gave them cornships, distributed 
bread to the hungry or gave them public shows 
to entertain them and turn their minds away 
from their straitened circumstances and their 
discontent; and when this would not satisfy the 
rulers fomented foreign wars and sent the peo- 
ple out to the slaughter pens of battle that the 
ranks of insubordination and revolt might be 
thinned. 

But that will not do now. 

Education is universal. ^Knowledge is cheap, 
the means of it at every hand and many run to 
and fro. The peoples of every clime visit each 
other, mingle and mix. What is known at one 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 695 

end of the earth is known at the other. Every- 
where the Gospel of discontent is preached by 
word, by written article, by picture, by speaking 
cartoons and moving film. 

A man buys a cheap chromo, the copy of a 
masterpiece. As he stands before it he asks him- 
self why he should not possess the original 
as well as another. He sees a car go by, the fa- 
ther and mother lying back soft-cushioned in 
luxury with their pampered child. He looks 
down at his own boy covered with grime bend- 
ing to work as he did and his fathers before him 
and a frown wrinkles his brow, it deepens, and 
he gives a fiercer turn to his knife-blade as he 
sharpens it on the revolving stone. 

Before the war the socialistic discontent be- 
gan to mutter in the German Reichstag. It 
made itself felt in the laboring class in England. 
It gave sabotage to France. It was a rising and 
deepening tide in this country. The laborer, the 
wage-earner, took on a sullen and resentful mien 
and sought more than equality with the em- 
ployer, ownership and mastery were seen to be 
the brooding and fermenting ideas. They have 



696 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

grown lawlessly independent. No man is so in- 
dependent and insufferable as the employee who 
has nothing. His independent manner and his 
incivility are his asset, as he thinks, of liberty, of 
freedom. The demand is for higher wages, 
shorter hours, less work,. Let the war stop to- 
morrow and this socialistic demand, this spirit 
of revolt against capital will rise and sweep all 
before it and instead of national we shall have 
social and industrial war. The Word of God 
in solemn warning tells us the rich are ^'heap- 
ing" their treasures together for the last times 
that it may be seized and squandered by the 
mob. 

But, let it be said the social republic is estab- 
lished, it cannot abide in peace. 

It is doomed by the basic law of human life. 

That law is self-interest. Self-interest is a 
magnificent factor in human history. It levels 
the mountains, fills up the valleys, builds cities 
and changes the wilderness into fruitful fields. 
The thing which will send you men out to 
mingle in the swirl and rush and tide of life to- 
morrow will be this impelling factor of self- 
interest 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 697 

It has been the secret of human achievement, 
but it carries its penalty, the penalty of the 
impingement of personality upon personality. 
The strength of a man is in ratio to his personal- 
ity. If your personality is actual and of avail 
you will resent anything that seeks to hinder or 
undervalue it. You will resent even a frown of 
disapproval as an assault upon that individual- 
ism. You will not tolerate it; and it is this in- 
tensity of personalism as the expression of self- 
interest that strikes against other personalisms 
and produces conflict. Here is a man who is a 
laborer. He becomes a walking delegate. He 
exercises authority over others. He becomes a 
contractor, then a grafter (the transition is 
easy) then a capitalistic oppressor. Others re- 
volt and the conflict is on. 

And there is no hope of changing the out- 
come. 

No matter how far you may project human 
life the end of every proposition and scheme for 
abiding human peace and personal satisfaction 
will be a failure unless you can change the con- 
stitution of man himself. 



698 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

Unless you can make one man set up the per- 
sonality of another and consider it and its inter- 
ests before his own; unless you can make him 
an entirely new creature (and this is impossible 
by evolution), no matter how far you may pro- 
ject human life it must end in failure. 

No matter how far you may culture the indi- 
vidual you can never eliminate these funda- 
mental characteristics: brevity, uncertainty, 
mystery and inadequacy. 

No matter how far you may project the line 
of human government, whether autocracy, aris- 
tocracy, oligarchy, monarchy, democracy, at the 
end is — failure. 

Think of it, brevity, uncertainty, mystery, in- 
adequacy, war, famine, pestilence, poverty, dis- 
ease, agony, suffering, suffering of body, and 
soul and mind, death, the grave and — silence. 

Would you dare to stand up and tell me in the 
face of all that, in the face of this phantas- 
magoria that human life and the experiment of 
human self government have been a success? 

Nay I They have been a colossal failure. 

The cause of this failure is twofold. 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 699 

Primarily, because man refused to fulfil the 
purpose of God concerning Him. 

God purposed to make man His vicegerent, 
His representative incarnation. 

The one condition: man should surrender 
himself to the personality of God, allow God to 
become enthroned in him. 

Had he done so he would not have been 
through all these long ages a mere animal work- 
ing with tools, but a god who should have com- 
manded and it would have been done ; he should 
have spoken and it would have stood fast. In- 
stead of belonging to the chain gang of labor, 
earning his bread in the sweat of his brow, he 
would have been a prince upon his throne, his 
royal sceptre his slightest will. 

God never meant man to be a toiling slave. 
He never meant him to be dependent on second- 
ary means. He meant him to move and act as 
the Man of Nazareth. When He came to the 
waters of the lake He just stepped upon them 
and not a drop touched the arches of His instep 
as He walked like one upon the motionless 
mosaic of a marble floor. 



700 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

But man listened to his own self-conscious- 
ness. 

He was taken up with himself. 

He would be the god of this world and un- 
aided of any other personality than his own. 

He turned his back upon God and became an 
intellectual and immoral animal. 

The second and instrumental cause of man's 
action and resultant fall and failure was the en- 
trance into and the impact of an immense per- 
sonality upon the world. 

That personality we call the serpent, the 
Devil and Satan. Serpent because 'of his sinu- 
ous, silent and gliding way, everywhere distill- 
ing and infusing his poison; Devil that is, slan- 
derer and, therefore, liar; Satan^ that means, 
adversary, hinderer, rebel. He is the opposite 
of God's positive. He is the emphasized nega- 
tive. He is not holy. He is not pure. He is not 
righteous. He is not good. He is not truth. 
He is not anything God is or likes. He is night 
to morning, darkness to light, evil to good. 

He whispered to man that man was in no need 
rf being in leading strings to any superior God; 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7^1 

he had in himself all the elements, all the re- 
quirement, all the endowment sufficient to en- 
able him to make the world his own and rule it 
as God. 

Man entered into partnership with the Devil, 
became his enthronement instead of the en- 
thronement of God. He became the Devil's 
dupe and slave. For six thousand years he has 
led man into the debauchery of brutism, self- 
gratification and sin, into idolatry, false religion, 
and unbelief. 

Full of self-consciousness and self-exaltation 
man has endeavored to regain the place from 
which he fell. All his inventions have been an 
expression of his determination to be the god 
and master of nature and thus the god of the 
world; but all his inventions have been and are 
but crutches revealing his shortage and descent 
from original power. 

In spite of his partnership with the Devil, 
that partnership which the Son of God recog- 
nized when He said to men, ''This is your hour 
and the power of darkness/' (or, literally the 
potentate of darkness) ; in spite of all the efforts 



702 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

he has made, seemingly at times almost super- 
human, he has failed and every hour only evi- 
dences he must fail. 

He is a dethroned god under the ban, and has 
no power now to reach the place, by any effort 
of his own, that might have been his. 

He is a failure. 

A colossal failure. 

But when God is rejected upon one plane of 
His purpose He always (speaking after the man- 
ner of men) rises to a higher. 

When the natural man whom He created re- 
fused to walk in partnership with Him, He 
brought into view that purpose which He had 
purposed from unbegun eternity, His purpose 
concerning the earth. Whatever may have been 
His purpose in detail in the creation of other 
worlds I do not know. The Psalmist has told us 
in general terms. He says the heavens declare 
the glory of God and the expanse showeth His 
handiwork. 

The omnipotence of God is told out in yonder 
sky in the terms of suns and nebulae and systems, 
and in every coruscation of light that breaks like 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7^3 

foaming waves on shores of countless universes; 
but this world of ours is one of the most insig- 
nificant of all. He did not create it as the su- 
preme expression of His omnipotence. It does 
show omnipotence in every pebble on the shore, 
in every blade of grass as well as lifted mountain 
range, but He did not create it for that. He 
created it that it might be the arena for the reve- 
lation of His love, that it might be the revelation 
of His heart. 

He anticipated the creation and the fall of 
man and purposed to send His Son into this 
world to become the incarnate redeemer and 
saviour of men. He ordained the place of the 
cross and the hour of His death thereon. 

In the fulness of time He came. In coordina- 
tion with the Father and the Spirit He formed 
for Himself a human nature from the seed and 
cell of a virgin woman. At the appointed mo- 
ment He went to His death. He offered Him- 
self as a sacrifice for sin. He arose. He as- 
cended. He sits in yonder Heaven the eternal 
God-man, God and man, two natures, human 



704 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

and divine, in one body and one person forever, 
the Second Man, the new Adam, the spiritual 
Head of the race, able to give new and spiritual 
life to men. 

For two thousand years an immense spiritual 
gestation has been going on. There has been 
forming in this world as a babe is formed under 
the bosom of the expectant mother, a spiritual 
body. That body is the Church. By the Church 
I do not mean the great professing system of 
Christianity, but the true, the genuine Church 
of which we are members who by faith in Christ 
crucified and risen have been made partakers of 
His life. His nature, and indwelt by the Holy 
Spirit are linked up to His risen and glorified 
body in Heaven. Each member of this body is 
a son of God in embryo. 

Like the gestation of a human body the spirit- 
ual body will have its birth hour. That birth 
hour will be at the Coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. He is Coming as King, as Lord of 
lords, as the God of the whole earth ; but before 
He comes as such He will descend softly, silently 
as the Head of the Body into the air. He will 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7^5 

raise the dead who have died in His name. He 
will transfigure the living who are His. He will 
gather them to Himself and take them tempo- 
rarily into the upper and golden city. 

As soon as this birth takes place then will be 
seen the acceleration of that other and terrible 
gestation which has been going on since the be- 
ginning of the fall. 

From the beginning of human history there 
have been but two men in the sight of God, the 
First man and the Last, Adam and Christ; so, 
have there been but two seeds, the seed of the 
woman and the seed of the serpent. 

The seed of the woman is the Christ of God, 
Christ the Head and Christ the Body, the 
Church. 

The seed of the serpent is the natural man and 
this system we call ^^the world." Through the 
ages this system has been developing in sin, in 
animalism, in idolatry, in philosophy, science 
and unbelief. 

After the departure of the Church it will de- 
velop with amazing rapidity along lines of gov- 



7o6 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

ernment and blasphemous repudiation of God 
and His Christ. 

I have told you in preceding sermons that 
twenty-five hundred years ago God gave the 
rulership of the world to the Gentile nations 
occupying the territory from Scotland to the 
Euphrates, from Germany to Africa; that this 
rule was ordained to, and did, descend through 
the four great empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, 
Greece and Rome; that Rome should be the last 
Gentile world power; that in the closing hours 
of this age Rome should be revived under the 
form of ten democratic kings, five in what was 
once the western empire and five in the eastern; 
that this revival and division would come about, 
not only by war, but by the uprising of the peo- 
ple who should elect the kings ; that due to the 
state of anarchy more or less ruling throughout 
the territory a mystic person continually fore- 
told in Scripture should arise and becom.e the 
accepted head of these kings and kingdoms, tak- 
ing His place as King of kings and Lord of 
lords; that he should be the last Kaiser; that 
he is the man of sin, a pro Christ, an Alter 
Christus, 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7^^? 

When the mask is off and the features seen we 
know him. He is the Devil's Son, the Devil's 
man, the fulfilment of the Devil's long ambi- 
tion and aim. He and the revived Roman Em- 
pire are the consummation of the gestation of sin. 
He and the empire stand in contrast to Christ 
and His Church. This political combination, 
this confederation of kings is the system, the evil 
body in which, and this man the evil head 
through whom, the Devil finds his way to imitate 
the incarnation of God's Son and by this great 
counterfeit become the accepted God of the 
world. 

He, the Devil's man, will restore the Jews to 
their own land. He will set up, as you have 
heard, the Jewish State. He will offer himself 
to, and be accepted by, the Jews as their political, 
if not real Messiah. 

He will make a treaty with them for seven 
years. At the end of three years and a half he 
will break the treaty. Under the hardening judg- 
ments of God he will become their persecutor. 
He will bring in the Great Tribulation which 
the Lord has said will be unparalleled in its 



7o8 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

horror. The world never saw anything like it 
before, and never shall again. 

In his madness, a demonized man. Devil- 
filled and Devil-crazed he will rush with his 
army to Jerusalem. Like Julian of old he will 
seek at one fell blow to wipe out and destroy 
every remaining tradition of Christianity. He 
will seat himself in the temple he has permitted 
the Jews to rebuild. He will declare man to be 
the highest expression of the God idea in the 
universe. He will claim to be the super man, 
above all other men and the perfect and final 
representation of the God idea. He will op- 
pose all other idea of God. He will show him- 
self that he is God. He will set up his image, 
his effigy. He will set it on the battlements, that 
is, the pinnacles of the temple in full view of the 
people. He will demand that men shall pay 
homage to it; not in a mere, vulgar, coarse, idol- 
atrous way, but as an expression of their faith in 
him and their belief in the deity of man. 

In worshipping him, they will be exalting hu- 
manity in themselves. 

Now will come the fulfilment of the promise 
and prophecy made in Eden. 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7^9 

It was affirmed the serpent should bruise the 
heel of the woman's seed and the seed of the 
woman should bruise the serpent's head. 

The serpent with his seed or system did bruise 
the heel of the woman's seed, there at the cross. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, even though God the 
Son, God of God, and very God of very God, 
was clothed with a humanity in which He could 
die. While it is true He offered Himself as 
a sacrifice for sin; while it is true no one took 
His life from Him; while it is true He dis- 
missed His own spirit, His human spirit, and 
thus acted in dying, yet as He made use of the 
instrumentality of the men who crucified Him; 
so, in some mysterious way He made use of the 
Devil of whom it is said he had "the power of 
death," and thus at His own determination and 
will was bruised by the serpent. 

The hour is coming when He will bruise the 
head of the serpent, that head and front of of- 
fending who is none other than the man of sin, 
the Anti-Christ. 

I have told you the Lord is Coming as the 
stone cut out of the mountains without hands 



710 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

which fell upon the feet of the image and broke 
it in pieces. 

He is Coming to Jerusalem to overthrow this 
man and his blasphemous and political confed- 
eration. 

I have in these sermons continually described 
the Coming of the Son of God in glory. I have 
said to you my vocabulary is exhausted. It is. 
I am a beggar for words. It would be impos- 
sible for me to represent this apocalyptic splen- 
dor, the consummation triumph, unless I could' 
talk in the parabolic phrase of sun, of system, of 
nebulae and constellation; unless I could speak 
to you in the hallelujah chorus of angel choirs 
and clothe my thoughts in all the colorful beauty 
of the throne encircling iris; unless I could so 
describe the Son of God Himself till you should 
see Him through the transparency of the terrible 
crystal and from His face there should blaze the 
radiance of His unmixed, essential glory that 
should make suns and moons and stars and all 
the light of Heaven as no more than darkling 
shadows beneath His feet. 

I cannot more describe it. 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7 1 1 

But the Lord will come with all His saints 
and the innumerable hosts that have been wait- 
ing since the first birth hour of the world for this 
anticipated moment. 

The Mount of Olives will cleave in twain at 
the touch of His feet. One-half of the moun- 
tain will roll back like a fold to the north, the 
other half to the south. There shall be a very- 
great valley for the gathering of the saints. 

At the word of the Lord the Devil's incar- 
nation and his false priest shall be cast into the 
fiery gulf that will open in the valley of Ge- 
hinnom. 

He will send an angel to lay hold on Satan, 
bind him and cast him into that underworld 
whither he has caused multitudes to descend. 

Then will come the judgment on the armies 
of the nations gathered there. 

You will remember that after the~ translation 
of the Church to Heaven the Lord will send out 
elect and converted Jews to preach the Gospel 
of the kingdom and to announce the Coming of 
the true Messiah, the true God of all the earth. 
Any one among the armies of the Anti-Christ 
who may have given to such a Jew nothing more 



7 1 2 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

than a cup of cold water will be spared and per- 
mitted to remain in the coming kingdom; but 
the rest will melt away as wax before the sun, or 
as the wind-swept chaff that is devoured by flame 
and fire. 

The Jews gathered from every quarter of the 
world will fall down before the Lord in bitter- 
ness of soul. They will ask Him (as the question 
shall be asked a false prophet) whence came 
the wounds they see in His hands. He will tell 
them He received them from their fathers, from 
the blind and unbelieving house of Israel. They 
will repent with lamentations and tears. 

A fountain will be opened in Jerusalem for 
uncleanness and sin. He will Himself be that 
very fountain. He will pardon. He will for- 
give. 

They will take up the fifty-third chapter of 
Isaiah and cry: 

"We hid as it were our faces from him; he 
was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried 
our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, 
smitten of God, and afflicted. 

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7^3 

he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastise- 
ment of our peace was upon him; and with his 
stripes we are healed. 

^^All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we 
have turned every one to his own way; and the 
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." 

This will indeed be repentance unto life and 
salvation. 

This will be the fulfilment of the promise that 
the Deliverer should come to Sion and turn 
away ungodliness from Jacob. 

The Lord will receive them. 

If in the wisdom and foreknowledge of God 
the "casting of them away" has been the "recon- 
ciling of the world," the receiving of them again 
can be nothing less than "life from the dead." 

There in this new conformation of the Mount 
of Olives the Lord will make unto all the people 
a feast of fat things. He wall swallow up death 
in victory. He will wipe away tears from ofif 
all faces and the rebuke, the shame and stigma 
that has been upon the Jew will He take away 
from all the earth. 

Filled with joy and gladness this repentant 
and now regenerated people shall cry aloud: 



714 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

"Lo this is our God; we have waited for 
Him, and He will save us : this is the Lord; we 
have waited for Him; we will be glad and re- 
joice in His salvation." 

At the head of His redeemed nation and amid 
the gaze of the encircling hosts of Heaven, in 
the fellowship of that Church that long before 
had owned and followed Him, He will enter in 
kingly triumph into Jerusalem. 

It will be the true and anti-typical — Palm 
Sunday. 

Then as written in the twenty-fourth Psalm 
the voices shall cry: 

^Xift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye 
lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of 
glory shall come in." 

From within the gates of the city voices reply 
and ask: 

^Who is this King of glory?" 

And the full and choral answer will come as 
when the sea breaks all its thunders on the 
shore : 

^The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord 
mighty in battle. 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7 1 5 

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift 
them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of 
glory shall come in." 

The atmospheric heavens that now surround 
the earth are full of dust, bacteria and every 
germ of disease and death. 

With a word the Son of God will cause them 
to roll away and in their stead shall be a new 
atmosphere which like a crystal river shall pour 
its waves of life around the far-flung circumfer- 
ence of the earth. 

Through its pure transparence there shall be 
seen shining in its golden glory that holy city, 
that promised "place" in the third heavens 
whither our Lord went two thousand years ago 
to prepare for His Church. 

Into this city whose glory and wonder can 
alone be described in terms of gold, of jasper, 
of pearls, of precious stones and cloudless light 
the main body of the Church shall return. 

Those who at the previous judgment seat of 
reward have been noted for special faithfulness 
in this hour of the Lord's absence will remain on 
earth. They will enter into the "joy of the Lord," 



7l6 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

even into this kingdom which is to be His reward 
as well as theirs. They are to be His associated 
rulers and administrators in the new day that is 
to dawn upon the earth. 

A mighty river will break out from the tem- 
ple area of Mount Zion and flow down to the 
Dead Sea, changing it into a lake of fresh, trans- 
parent water. The whole country through 
which the river shall pour itself will be made 
beautiful and fruitful as the garden of the 
Lord. 

Jerusalem shall be rebuilt and made resplen- 
dent. It shall be built unto the Lord. It will 
be His throne and dwelling place. 

To-day its ancient foundations are sunken deep 
beneath the accumulated debris of centuries; 
but the promise of God long ago given by His 
prophet Jeremiah is that this shall be cleared 
away, the old stones with their hewers' marks 
shall be uncovered and once more as the prophet 
says, the city shall be builded "upon her own 
heap." 

"It shall be built from the tower of Hananeel 
unto the gate of the corner," and the measuring 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7 17 

line shall go forth from Gareb to Goath. It 
shall be so built that never more will it be 
"plucked up," nor "thrown down" by the hand 
of man. 

The great temple will be erected. 

It will be set up according to the plan laid out 
in the closing chapters of the prophet Ezekiel. 

Sir Inigo Jones, the great English architect, 
once declared should the temple really be built 
according to the lines there laid down, the struc- 
ture would rise in such proportions of beauty, 
majesty and resplendent glory that the wonder 
of it would fill the earth. 

When the city has been built, the temple fin- 
ished and the vast "suburbs" or gardens designed 
of the Lord shall encircle Jerusalem, the city, 
"beautiful for situation," will indeed be, "the 
joy of the whole earth." 

Many years ago when I went to Rome and 
across the wide and historic campagna — beyond 
the ruins of gigantic aqueducts and under the 
blue sky, shining white and towered and glisten- 
ing on her ancient hills of seven, and against 
the background of purple-tinted mountains, for 



7 1 8 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

the first time I caught a view of the eternal city, 
involuntarily I cried aloud, ''Rome," and felt a 
quivering thrill in all my pulses. Some Italians 
by my side rose and with voice of exultation, of 
pride, of triumph and seeming adoration cried 
out involuntarily even as I had done, but more 
softly in their native tongue, ''Roma." 

When the multitudes of pilgrims shall come 
from the uttermost parts of the earth to visit and 
worship the Lord in Jerusalem, to fall down be- 
fore Him as Thomas did and say, as he did, "My 
Lord and my God"; when they get their first 
glimpse of the holy city they will cry out ere they 
know it : 

"The Lord is there." 

Yes, that will be the name of the city; as it 
is written : 

"The name of the city from that day shall be 
THE Lord is there." 

He of whom men have dreamed, whom men 
have denied, whose very existence has been ques- 
tioned, whose form has been sought amid the 
clouds and far stars. He will be there in all the 
fulness of His godhead bodily, in His deity, His 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 719 

humanity, the mighty God, the Son of God, Son 
of Mary, Son of Man and Prince of Peace. 

And the heart of multitudes will throb and 
the lips will give utterance to poeans of praise as 
they cry: 

"The Lord is there." 

It will be as when the mariner on tempest- 
tossed sea after long days and nights of weary 
vigil sees the distant shore break into view and 
cries, "the land, the land." 

It will be as when dying with thirst in sandy 
deserts men see the clear and flowing stream and 
cry, "water, water." 

O, the multitudes as they see the wondrous 
city, the glorious temple and breathe the pure 
and health-giving air will cry: 

"The Lord is there." 

That will be the name of the city: 

^^Jehovah Shammah — The Lord is there." 

The Lord will remember His covenant with 
all Israel, with the ten tribes as well as the two, 
with Ephraim as well as with Judah. For 
twenty-five hundred years their identity has 
been lost amid the nations of the East whither 



720 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

they were carried. They have never been hid- 
den from His eyes. By the exercise of His om- 
nipotent power He will reveal them to the world 
and to themselves. He will call them out and 
separate them as the fine gold is separated from 
the dross. With His own stretched-out hand 
He will gather them; as it is written: 

^Tor thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness 
for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the 
nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, 
save thy people, the remnant of Israel. 

"Behold, I will bring them from the north 
country, and gather them from the coasts of the 
earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the 
woman with child and her that travaileth w^ith 
child together: a great company shall return 
thither. 

"They shall come with weeping, and with 
supplications will I lead them: I will cause 
them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight 
way, wherein they shall not stumble; for I am 
a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. 

"Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, 
and declare it in the isles afar off, and say. He 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 72 1 

that scattered Israel (the ten tribes) will gather 
him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock/' 
(Jeremiah 31 : 7-10.) 

He will bring them into the land of Palestine. 
They shall no longer be two nations. They shall 
no longer be separate peoples, the one wanderers 
among the Gentiles, and the other sunken in 
them as those who be in their graves. They shall 
be one nation upon the mountains of Israel; as 
it is written : 

^Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will 
take the children of Israel from among the 
heathen whither they have gone, and will gather 
them on every side, and bring them into their 
own land: 

"And I will make them one nation in the land 
upon the mountains of Israel; and one king 
shall be king to them all ; and they shall be no 
more two nations, neither shall they be divided 
into two kingdoms, any more at all." (Ezekiel 
37:21-22.) 

According to His promise the Lord shall 
make them the head and no longer the tail of 
nations. They shall be above only and not be- 



722 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

neath. They shall be plenteous in goods, in the 
fruit of the body, in the fruit of cattle, in the 
fruit of the ground. The Lord shall open to 
them the good treasure of heaven, to give them 
rain in season and to bless all the work of their 
hands. They shall lend to the nations and not 
borrow; and all the people of the earth. shall see 
that they are called by the name of the Lord; 
that they are a redeemed, a regenerated and a 
holy people. 

The twelve apostles, themselves Jews, will be 
their rulers, administrators and judges, accord- 
ing to the promise which the Lord Himself 
promised: as it is written: 

'^I appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father 
hath appointed unto me; 

"That ye may eat and drink at my table in my 
kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve 
tribes of Israel/^ (Luke 22: 29-30.) 

The Lord will take His seat in the temple. 

He will sit there as Son of Abraham. 

As the Son of Abraham He is the covenant 
owner and possessor of the land, 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 723 

In the far away centuries God made the cove- 
nant with Abraham ; as it is written : 

''Unto thy seed have I given this land, from 
the river of Egypt (from the Nile) unto the 
great river, the river Euphrates." (Genesis 15: 

i8.) 
And writing under the inspiration of the Holy 

Spirit to the Gentile believers in the Church at 

Galatia, the Apostle Paul says : 

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the 
promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as 
of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, WHICH 
IS Christ." (Galatians 3: 16.) 

He will sit in the temple as the Son of David. 

As the Son of David He is the heir of David's 
throne ; as it is written : 

"He shall be great, and shall be called the 
Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall 
give unto him the throne of his father David: 

"And he shall reign over the house of Jacob 
for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no 
end." (Luke 1:32, 33.) 

He shall sit in the temple as the Son of the 
Virgin Mary. 



724 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

As the Son of the Virgin Mary He shall be 
Jesus still, He who shall save His people Israel 
from their sins: as it is written: 

"She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt 
call his name jESUS : for he shall save his people 
from their sins." (Matthew i : 21.) 

He shall sit in the temple as the Son of Man, 

As the Son of Man He is the supreme, the 
final Judge; as it is written: 

"For as the Father hath life in himself; so 
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 

"And hath given him authority to execute 
judgment also, because he is the Son of man." 
(John 5: 26, 27.) 

He will sit in the temple as the Son of God. 

As the Son of God, He will be, God the Son, 
avouched as such by the Father and proclaimed 
the eternal and righteous king; as it is written: 

"But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O 
God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre of righteous- 
ness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." (Hebrews 

He will take upon Himself His office as 
Teacher. 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7^5 

He will teach this Old Book, the Bible. 

What a spectacle that! What dynamic of 
suggestion! What a commentary on some men 
in the pulpit, the recent graduates of modern 
theological schools or those resident in their 
atmosphere and overcome by them; men who 
have little place in their ministry for the Bible 
except as a storehouse for texts with which to 
prove to their own satisfaction and the undoing 
of the faith of others, that it is not the inspired, 
infallible Word of God. What a commentary on 
the men who have gone through the Bible and 
are ready to accept any authority as final but 
that: 

He will teach the Bible as we have it to-day. 

He will justify the cosmogony of Moses and 
verify the forecast of all the prophets. 

He will make His face to shine from the dull- 
est page till the simplest lines shall be as a flood 
of effulgent and apocalyptic glory. 

He will take His listeners over the hallowed 
Aground of His earthly life; to Bethlehem where 
He was born, to the place of the wayside khan 
wherein He lay the night the angels sang. He 



726 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

will take them to Olivet where His soul seemed 
to ooze from His body in the blood of agony; 
and He will show the place of His cross where 
He died and paid the ransom of a world. 

He will point out the true and holy sepulchre 
from whence He arose true God and real, im- 
mortal man. 

The Word of the Lord shall go forth from 
Jerusalem. 

It will be a worldwide evangelism. 

Redeemed and regenerated Israel will be the 
ministers ; as it is written : 

"Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord; 
men shall call you the ministers of our God." 
(Isaiah 6i : 6.) 

With their polyglot tongue they shall carry 
the tidings to the ends of the earth. 

The very name, the very word, "Jew," will 
lend honor to him who wears it. 

Men of the nations will seek out him who is 
called a Jew that they may learn the things 
of God. 

The nations of the earth will look upon a Jew 
as the depositary of divine truth and will seek 
them out; as it is written : 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 7^7 

^'Men shall take hold, out of all languages of 
the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of 
him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you ; 
for we have heard that God is with you." 
(Zechariah 8: 23.) 

Isaiah tells us that "all nations" shall flow 
unto Jerusalem. They will come from the utter- 
most parts of the earth to behold the Lord. 

The universal and perfected means of com- 
munication will flash the news to every hamlet, 
to every spot where human beings dwell. 

All shall come to know the Lord is in His 
holy temple. All shall know it from the least 
unto the greatest. 

As the result of His presence and the outpour- 
ing of all the ends of the earth to own and con- 
fess Him vast multitudes shall be genuinely re- 
generated and made one with Him. 

As a result of this universal change in man, 
this coming in of a new nature and the domina- 
tion of the divine spirit in the heart and con- 
science, self-interest in its selfish and aggressive 
form shall be dethroned. As a consequence of 
this denial of self as an aggressor against an- 



72 8 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

Other, envy and jealousy will be like serpents 
with their stings extracted. War will come to 
an end. Men will no longer butcher each other 
for an imagined right or wrong. The fields will 
no longer be sown with the dragons' teeth of 
hate. Blood will not drench the earth, nor slain 
men's bones fertilize the grave-filled soil. 
Swords will be beaten into plough shares, spears 
into pruning hooks, nation shall no more lift 
up sword against nation. They shall learn 
war no more. Colleges and schools to train men 
in the art of war will cease to have either stu- 
dents or teachers. All the material of war will 
be converted into instruments of peace and 
means for conserving and not for destroying life. 
The sound of trumpet and of drum will be 
hushed and the tramp of marching feet no more 
be heard. 

Individual land ownership will be abolished. 

There w411 no longer be such a monstrosity on 
God's fair earth as of one man owning thousands 
of acres and another not even enough of ground 
to be buried in ; one man worth millions and an- 
other worth nothing; one man able to gratify 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 729 

every desire and without an effort, and another 
with the sweat of his brow, the weariness of his 
body and the ache of both heart and brain scarce 
able to meet his minimum need. 

The day of graft and syndicate privilege, the 
conspiracy of the few against the many will be 
over. 

There will be but one ownership of land, the 
ownership of the Lord. 

Round the wide earth the proclamation of the 
twenty-fourth Psalm will be repeated: 

^'The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof; the world and they that dwell therein." 

All property will be held in trust from the 
Lord. 

Each individual will be a tenant of the King. 

Each man will be given a home ; as it is writ- 
ten: 

"They shall sit every man under his vine and 
under his fig tree; and none shall make them 
afraid." 

There will be competition among men, but it 
will be a competition in righteousness, in devo- 
tion to God. It will be a competition in which 



730 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

he who is most filled with truth and holiness 
and love, love to man and love to God, ever ex- 
panding and deepening love to God through 
ever expanding and deeper love to man; he 
who seeks most in all things to please the Lord, 
shall be most exalted, most renowned. It will 
be a competition in which the success and en- 
richment will be measured not in land, but in 
love, in spiritual life, in soul dominion. 

The ban will be taken off the earth. 

For six thousand years it has been under the 
original curse. 

The earth is a deep and fruitful m.atrix. It 
is filled with seed. It is ever in travail, ever it 
seeks to bring to the birth. Were it not re- 
strained and hindered and held in check it would 
bring forth in such abundance that neither ache 
of back nor sweat of brow would be required to 
reap and eat and drink of all the wealth of 
bounty it could bestow. 

But God ordained its fruitfulness should be 
limited. 

The sin of man had brought the seed of woe 
and filled earth's flanks with evil and with 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 731 

poisonous things. Henceforth there should be 
weeds and briars and thorns and trailing vines to 
strangle and choke the good seed, to dwarf and 
kill the fruit. 

No care is needed for these hindering things. 
Weeds and thorns and poisonous vines will come 
up in the night. They will grow in the desert 
and flourish in the flinty rock; but if you would 
have the good seed grow, you must toil and labor 
and water it with your sweat and encourage its 
tardy growth with ybur painful care. Rain or 
drouth, chill winds and frost will little hinder 
the worthless thorns and weeds; but the good 
seed must be shielded from burning sun, from 
torrential rain, from mildew, from blast, from 
east winds that blow unwelcome storms and 
from insects which like heartless marauders, like 
the enemy in the dark, go forth to spoil with 
bite and sting the hoped-for, toiled-for yield. 

But in this new day the ban will, indeed, be 
lifted, and then will the desert blossom as the 
rose, the orchards will bend low with freighted 
fruit, the vines will hang their purple clusters in 
the sun, the earth shall be as the Paradise of 
God, and man its happy keeper. 



732 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

Once a year the nations will be under bond to 
send their representatives to Jerusalem to return 
thanks for fruitful fields and unfailing seasons. 

It will be true, and real, and universal Na- 
tional Thanksgiving. 

There will be no sickness, no disease. 

And this, primarily, because the Devil will be 
bound. 

Sickness comes from the violation of God's 
will in mind, in soul and body. This violation 
is stirred by Satan. He is its inspiration and 
cause. But Satan himself has the direct power 
of disease as he also has the power of death. 

This is taught by our Lord in the case of the 
woman who was so bowed and bent with a spirit 
of infirmity that for eighteen years she had been 
unable to lift herself up. The Lord healed her 
on the Sabbath day, and when the ruler of the 
synagogue protested, the Lord answered and 
said: 

'^Ought not this woman, being a daughter of 
Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these 
eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on th^ 
sabbath day?" 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 733 

But Satan will be bound for a thousand years. 

During his incarceration in the pit there will 
be no sickness nor disease among men. The in- 
habitants of the land shall not say, ^^I am sick." 
The atmosphere as the river of life shall bathe 
the bodies and invigorate the soul. 

Doctors and undertakers will lose their func- 
tion. 

There will be no more outbreaking of sin and 
violence. 

There will be no need of police, no judges, no 
courts, nor prisons, nor hangman's rope, nor elec- 
tric chair. 

The Lord Himself will rule. 

He will rule in righteousness. 

He will rule with a rod of iron. 

He will dash in pieces and break all opposi- 
tion as a potter's vessel. 

He will put down all rule and authority. 

He will reign as the Prince of Peace; but it 
will be a reign based on righteousness and law. 

The righteousnes and the law will be inex- 
orable. 

If any one shall tell a lie he shall die in his 
tracks ; as it is written : 



734 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

^'He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my 
sight." (Psalm loi : 7.) 

Human life will be prolonged. 

There will be no more an ''infant of days." 

Infancy will not be spoken of in the term of 
days. 

The sinner who dies a hundred years old will 
be considered an infant; but he will die ac- 
cursed. His death will be the sign and seal of 
God's judgment. 

Consider what this prolongation of human life 
will mean. 

What a development there will be of the 
knowledge and powers of man. 

Imagine what an effect this prolongation of 
life and health would have had upon such an 
one as Shakespeare or Bacon. 

Take some of our great inventors, let them 
live five hundred years, who can tell the out- 
come of their ever developing genius? 

And the fact that always out of the earth new 
things can be taken, always fresh discoveries are 
made of hitherto unknown forces and laws and 
energies, rhe exhaustiessness of nature's treas- 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 735 

ures, all these things prove that the earth was 
not made for a man of sixty or seventy years, 
but for men who could live forever. 

For a thousand years this government of 
Christ shall last. 

A thousand years in which every problem 
will be solved. 

Human life will no longer be judged as brief, 
uncertain, a mystery and inadequate. 

Government will no longer be built on the 
sword, cemented by blood, throbbing with hate, 
pulsing with fear and ruled by oppression, but 
a government of God administered by the hands 
of a righteous man who Himself is very God. 

A thousand years of prolonged life, with defi- 
nite aim, the revelation of truth, the fulness of 
light, of knowledge and understanding, the ban- 
ishment of sin, sickness and natural death, com- 
pensation, satisfaction and a limitless future for 
the unfolding of human powers and human 
hopes. 

A thousand years of peace, of divine glory and 
ever-increasing human splendor. 

A thousand years in which the humanity of 



73 6 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

Christ will continually show the limitlessness of 
its resources, its infinite union with Godhead 
and interpenetration by divinity, but divinity 
which never mixes with or changes the human- 
ity. 

A thousand years in which the deity of Christ 
is ever manifesting itself as enthroned in His 
humanity and through the succeeding years pro- 
claiming the unsullied virginity of His human 
mother, proving and glorifying the infinite be- 
getting of His infinite Father. 

The government and kingdom of the thou- 
sand years. 

But the thousand years is only the time limit 
of the kingdom. 

It has its eternal side. 

At the end of the thousand years Satan will be 
loosed from his prison. 

He will be loosed that he may test the world. 

He is like acid upon metal. 

In spite of himself he is the revealer of the 
true by revealing the false. 

In this immense moment of test it will be 
found that a great multitude who lived under 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 737 

the law of righteousness all these years and had 
their lives prolonged were never regenerated; 
never actually accepted the Lord. They sur- 
rendered to Him simply as the conquered yield 
to the conqueror. 

Scripture speaks of them continually as those 
who have ^^ feigned faith/' 

In spite of a thousand years of righteousness 
and peace; in spite of all the benefits they en- 
joyed, they are not of God, have not His life and 
the moment restraint is of¥ and the opportunity 
given they rebel and come against the holy city 
and its Holy King. 

It is a fearful proclamation of the unchange- 
ableness of human nature. 

It is the revelation and pilloring of evolution 
as the great and all Satanic lie, the lie that has 
deceived and is fooling the souls of men to-day. 

Fire from Heaven falls upon them and de- 
stroys them. 

Satan is cast into the lake of fire, the never 
dying, eternal suffering prisoner of state. 

The Great White Throne is set. 

The final assize is on. 



738 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

The Son of God takes His place as the su- 
preme Judge of human kind. 

The Christless dead of all ages are raised, even 
those whose bodies have just been slain by fire. 

They will be judged and tried on many counts. 

All idolaters will be judged and witnessed 
against by the handiwork of God in the wide 
creation. The flaming sun of day, the burning 
stars of night, the whirling earth in its change 
of seasons all proclaim the one mind, the one 
will, the one thought, the one thinker behind it 
all, the eternal God — and render each image 
worshipper, each follower after a strange god 
without excuse. 

Men will be judged according to the oppor- 
tunity of the age in which they lived. 

They will be judged by: 

The Theophanies of Christ, 

By the ministry of angels. 

By the law. 

By the manifestation of God in the flesh — 
Christ at His first advent. 

By the Gospel 

^y the thousand years. 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 739 

None will be found to have his name in the 
book of life. 

The sentence of death originally passed upon 
them will be reaffirmed. 

They will die the second time. 

They will die by fire ! 

From this second death there is no resurrec- 
tion. 

They will be disembodied souls. 

They will be sent out into the wide universe, 
into the "outer darkness." 

They will be as "wandering stars, to whom is 
reserved the blackness of darkness forever." 

They shall wander through this unlit dark- 
ness of eternity as derelicts of humanity, tossed 
upon an endless and shoreless sea; souls that 
have missed the purpose for which created — 
union and fellowship with God. 

The earth will then be subject to purifying 
fire. The very heavens shall be as a winding 
sheet of flame. Every stain of sin, every mark 
of evil, every scar of wrong, every memory of 
unrighteousness, every trace of pain, of sickness, 
of sorrow, of death and the grave will be washed 



740 THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

away by this all-cleansing flood of elemental and 
judicial fire. The earth will not be destroyed. 
It will be made new. 

It will be renewed. As there has been a re- 
generation of the soul, a regeneration of the 
body, so will there be a regeneration of the earth. 
In the old creation God began with the earth, 
then the body of man and after that the soul. 
In the new creation He begins with the soul, 
refashions the body and the earth. Made new 
and beautiful, clean and holy, it will be lifted 
into the center of all the universe. Already 
our solar system is sweeping, astronomers tell 
us, with accelerating speed toward that star- 
less, that "empty place" in the North of which 
Job ages ago before telescopes were known so 
accurately and scientifically spoke. 

The earth, redeemed, regenerated, made pure 
and holy will now be handed by the Son back to 
the Father. God shall get His own world again 
as it was in that original creation recorded, not 
in the second, but in the first verse of Genesis, 
It will be the same world, but that same world 
with plus — plus a race of redeemed and glori- 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 74* 

fied men, one time sinners, lost and undone, but 
now filled with eternal life, made sons of God 
and forever more the trophies of infinite love, of 
measureless grace and that divine wisdom which 
found a way whereby God could be just and yet 
the justifier of the ungodly, justifying every one 
who should believe in Jesus. 

A world of saved men, the center of the 
amazed, the adoring gaze of the measureless 
hosts of Heaven, glorifying God because of the 
OMNIPOTENCE OF LOVE. A world upon which 
the angels of God shall look with rapturous joy, 
repeat and proclaim to Heaven's remotest bound 
the all-embracing truth — GOD IS LOVE — Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost— GOD IS LOVE. 

The holy city, the new Jerusalem, the Church 
as the Tabernacle of God shall descend into the 
regenerated earth. 

The Lord Himself will take up His abode 
among men. 

As He has revealed God to be Redeemer and 
Saviour, King of righteousness and truth, He 
will now reveal Him in all His fulness as the 
Father. He will be in His own person the Fa- 



74^ THE THOUSAND Y.EARS AND AFTER 

ther of the everlasting age; so that, in Him the 
Christian may behold the Father's face and hear 
His voice; and yet, find Him to be this same 
Jesus, our great God and Saviour in whom shall 
continue to dwell all the fulness of the deity 
bodily. 

The earth shall be, no longer the footstool, but 
the throne of God. 

The whole universe will swing about this 
radiant center, looking with adoring wonder 
upon Jesus, the Christ, the Son as the revelation 
of the infinite God, the disclosure of His heart. 

The redeemed shall be men. 

They shall be God-men. 

There shall be no longer the organized dis- 
tinction among men known as nations. 

Nations are for administration and govern- 
mental restraint. 

Nations bear witness of the presence of sin, 
needing restraint 

There will be no sin and therefore no need of 
human government restraint. 

Israel, however, will be retained in national 
form, not for administration of government, but 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 743 

as a memorial of the days of time and the nation 
specially chosen of God. 

The order of the Eternal State will be: 

The Father. 

The Son. 

The Church. 

Israel — the memorial nation. 

Men. 

The condition of life is described in Holy 
Writ: 

"The tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
will dwell with them, and they shall be his peo- 
ple, and God himself shall be with them, and 
be their God. 

"And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there 
be any more pain: for the former things are 
passed away." 

Eternity has opened for man. 

God and man are in partnership forever. 

God and man and God in man rule the uni- 
verse. 

The hideous, ages long nightmare of sin and 
rebellion is over. 



744 the thousand years and after 

God is all in all. 

There is only one word to describe this KING- 
DOM OF God. 

That word is "INCREASE." 

"Of the increase of His government and peace 
there shall be no end." 

The government of Him who while David's 
Lord is — David's God. 

No END, only INCREASE, always increasing, al- 
ways unfolding fresh wonders, fulfilling that 
immense, measureless promise made to the 
Church and always to be realized in and by the 
Church first, in which "in the ages to come." 
God will "Shew the exceeding riches of His 
GRACE, IN His kindness toward us through 
Christ Jesus." 

This is the eternal future for all who own and 
confess Jesus Christ crucified, dead, buried, 
risen again, ascended to Heaven and now seated 
at the right hand of God the Father; all who 
own Him as Redeemer, Saviour and Lord. 

The prelude to this immense kingdom and 
glory of God may take place at any hour by the 
secret, sudden descent of the Lord into the air 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 745 

and the calling up thither of His true and re- 
deemed Church. 

If the Lord should come to-night those of you 
who have not accepted and owned Him would 
be left behind to woe, to anguish, to the final 
second death, to eternal disembodiment and ban- 
ishment in the endless darkness and as hopeless 
suffering wanderers forever. 

This is my last sermon of the series. 

During ten weeks I have set the truth before 
you and warned you of coming events and the 
only way of salvation. 

How shall I appeal to you in this hour, for 
now is the accepted time, now is the day of sal- 
vation. 

Shall I appeal to you by the sorrows of eternal 
regret, the agony of eternal remorse? Shall I 
appeal to you by all the ties of human love ; by 
the father who loved you and stinted himself 
for you; by the mother who bore you, was de- 
voted to you and' never ceased to pray for you? 
Shall I appeal by the little child, the song and 
the sunbeam in your life, that child that was 
taken from you, dwells in Heaven, but whose ab- 



74^ THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 

sence has made your home empty? Shall I ap- 
peal by the goodness of God; by the providence 
that has been round you and preserved you to 
this moment? Shall I appeal by the wounds of 
Christ? 

The other day, over there in the trenches a 
young French soldier lay dying on the field 
where he felL He heard the shouting and felt 
the rush as the column swept by. He raised his 
head and asked the meaning of it. They told 
him the enemy's lines had been taken and the 
tri-color was waving above them; as he fell 
back into the death that waited for him with 
his last breath he cried aloud, ^^Vive La France. 
I have not died in vain." 

Will you let Christ die in vain? 

Shall His blood be shed for naught? 

I can make no more appeal. 

You remember, do you not, when you were a 
boy, when you were tired or hurt, how good it 
was to lean your head against your mother's 
breast and feel her loving arms go round you, 
and hear her gentle words that bade you lie still 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 747 

and rest there above her beating heart, beating 
for you? 

They say among the last words soldiers utter 
who die over there, not mere boys, but sturdy, 
brave, heroic men is the one word — ^'Mother,'' 

With all a father's sacrifice, a mother's gentle- 
ness, the eternal God wants to put His arms 
around you (those arms He flung out wide and 
had them nailed on the cross for you). He 
wants to put His arms around you, caress you, 
soothe you, calm you. He is saying to you in 
soft, persuasive, sympathetic tones, "Come unto 
Me and rest.'' , 

All that is required of you is to yield your- 
self, confess your faith in Jesus Christ the eter- 
nal Son. 

Hear my last words, words whereby, if you 
will receive them, you may be saved, saved now, 
saved forever, find joy in God, take part in the 
coming thousand years and in all the after 
eternal glories. 

These are the potent, all-meaning, all-saving 
words for you, if you will. 

Hear them I pray you: 



^- 



748 



THE THOUSAND YEARS AND AFTER 



^^If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that 
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt 
be saved/' (Romans 10:9.) 



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